This World is Not My Home

Remember when Facebook used to ask...or perhaps it still does...What is on your mind?Well, if it asked me that today, I would say "home." I just got back from a month long trip visiting my home state. I got to be around family, friends and an area that felt familiar. A place full of cherished memories. Yet, it felt different too. In many ways that isn't my home anymore. I have moved for college and lived in three different houses in my married life. Though that place has a huge tug on my heart and I hope to live there again one day, my true home isn't there.

I was laughing at myself because as I was getting ready for this trip I would tell people that I was "going home for a month" and when I was in Washington people would ask "when do we head back home?" I would answer and then smile. Because I was using the term home for both places and perhaps there is some truth to both those statements. Merriam-Webster defines "home" as A home is a dwelling place or physical structure where a person or family lives. Based on that definition both North Carolina and Washington apply.

As I was on one of my walks while I was in Washington I caught myself humming the gospel song "This World is Not My Home." If you aren't familiar it goes; This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through my treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me by heavens open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore

Friend, if you are struggling to find your "home" this side of heaven, might I offer that we both need to look upwards. As Christians we are not of this world. We are merely ambassadors. Our home is in heaven, forever and in the overall scheme of things our time here is quite short. Our hearts were created for home, but so often we look for worldly replacements for what we are truly yearning for. There is something beautiful about being able to return to our worldly homes and finding joy and comfort in that. However, it pales in comparison to the joy and comfort that we will find in our heavenly home. So often I forget that this world is not all that there is, eternity matters so much more. Are we living like this is the truth? How kind of God to provide us places here on earth that give us glimpses of the treasure of home instore for us in heaven, but "our small slices of heaven" are not true heaven.

When roots of discontentment rise up and we wish that our lives looked a little different or we wrestle with where God is calling us to call home we can know that this is not our true home. Throughout the gospels Jesus reminds his disciples that there is a bigger plan, a larger perspective. We look at things from a human, worldly perspective, but God sees what matters for eternity. As we cultivate atmospheres and culture in our earthly homes may we keep our eyes on eternity and not what the world values.

I know that it is easier said than done friend. I wrestle with this frequently. I don't have all the answers. I don't have a 3-step plan to be more eternity minded. What I do have is a deep desire to have a sense of home. I am grateful that God offers me so many places to experience that this side of heaven, yet I can't help but feel that I am missing what He is truly trying to offer me. An invitiation to rest in His home. To be welcomed, cared for and loved in a way I have never known till Him. A place that smells like the best home cooked meal, a hug from a loved one that you yearn for, and the feeling when you drop your backpack at the door after a long day of school.

Perhaps all God is asking you and me to do today is be willing to dream about our heavenly home. To accept His invitation to be His child welcome Him into your heart and experience the feeling of home that we have been looking for this whole time.