Her Never-Ending Search For "Home"

Everybody's talking about home these days...and I don't even know for sure where my home is. With school out for summer I have moved to a home I had never lived in before. This brings the concept of home to my mind a great deal. I have struggled with the idea of "home" for most of my life. This may not have been such an issue with me if my family had settled on a place to call home when I was younger. After our move to Louisiana in 1990 my family often referred to South Carolina and Georgia as "home" each time that we would venture back to see relatives for holidays. When I was little I suppose I assumed it was normal behavior to call a place you'd grown up partially "home". It wasn't until later in my teen years that I stopped calling our trips "home" and I began calling New Orleans my true home due to the fact that I had grown much there both physically and spiritually. Most of my memories surrounded events in our New Orleans life. Little did I know that my very idea of "home" would soon be flipped again. Circumstances surrounding summer 2000 and following led me to begin letting go of my New Orleans home and once again not know where "home" was. by December 2000 my parents had moved to Alabama with a new ministry, and new home and a new life. I had left a large part of my heart and childhood in Louisiana while I attended school in Mississippi. I either had three homes or none at all to claim.

Christians should feel a certain detachment from the world similar to the detachment I have felt from home. Its as if we are never completely at home on this earth [Hebrews 11:13b]. But perhaps there is a place on this earth that a child of God can call "home".

Our home is in Christ [Hebrews 11:16]. One of the places I feel the most love and comfort is those times I am closest to my Father. Whether I be singing for Him, serving Him, or crying on His heavenly shoulders.

Our home is in Christ's will [John 14:23; John 15:5-6]. Sometimes I'll be just a step from the path Christ has for me, but that one step keeps me from being at "home" with Him. As soon as I step back into His will I feel his arms embrace me and welcome me "home" once again.

Our home is with Christ's people [1 John 1:7]. One thing I've found constant of all the places I've wanted to call "home" is the gathering of believers. Everyplace believers in Christ are together is a place one should feel at "home". I've discovered this anew in the last few weeks as I've become a part of a new church family. It's as if God and God's people opened their arms and said "welcome home".

Hebrews 11:13b-16 "And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."

John 14:23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

Hebrews 3:3-6 "Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast."

1 John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."