Home is Where Jesus Is

We just arrived home from a two-week car trip, meeting with friends and churches and sharing what God is doing among the Deaf through DOOR.  We logged about 2900 miles on this trip, traveling to Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania (with some drive-by states in-between).  We arrived home in the evening, and after a late dinner and some unloading of the car, the boys got ready for bed.

As I was tucking in one of the boys, he seemed to have a lot on his mind.  When I asked what he was thinking about, I got the usual response: "Oh, nothing."  I know better than to leave that be, and prodded a bit more. "Are you glad to be home?" He looked at me and said, "That's just it, Dad. I'm glad to be here, but I'm really not sure what to call home now.  We had lots of different places we stayed in the past two weeks, and we're only here in this house for another month.  Then we'll be off again, staying in more people's houses, and eventually on to Kenya." None of this was said with an accusatory tone; he was just stating very calmly and matter-of-factly how he felt.

I looked at him and said, "You know, I feel the same way.  It's starting to become harder to call this home, and I'm not sure where 'home' will be a month from now.  I guess part of what God is teaching me through this is that our ultimate home is in heaven.  When I feel the joy of coming home, that's a glimpse of what it will feel like to eventually see Jesus face-to-face.  And when I feel like I don't really have a home, I'm reminded that I'm really longing to be there with Jesus."

He thought for a second and said, "You're right.  When we talk about 'home,' we usually mean a building or our possessions.  But home is really where Jesus is."

Well said.

We went on to talk about the important role that family plays in our concept of home, and how Jesus didn't even have a home while he was here on earth.  But I kept coming back to Paul's words in Philippians 1:  "For to me, to live is Christ…"  I was reminded that even amidst all of the change happening over the next several months, we need to keep our eyes fixed on Christ (Heb. 12:1-2).  He is that unchanging cornerstone, the solid rock upon which we can stand.

Here's something we have printed out and taped to one of our doors; this pretty much sums it up: