Home

Home is defined in the free online dictionary as:

1. A place where one lives; a residence.
2. The physical structure within which one lives, such as a house or apartment.
a. An environment offering security and happiness.
b. A valued place regarded as a refuge or place of origin.
3. The place, such as a country or town, where one was born or has lived for a long period.

Home is also the title of a book I enjoy by Marilynn Robinson. If you haven't read it, you should but first you should read, Gilead. You will be glad that you did.

In the past year I have thought about the concept of "home" often. Last summer we packed up our bags and moved to Korea. Our location and living space was quite different from our house in Lenexa, Kansas.

Over the course of the year in Korea our little apartment on the 5th floor of the City of Angel Officetel began to feel like home. After a long day, it felt like a refuge to rest and be together as a family. There were days when I missed our house in Lenexa, the space, the kitchen, the deck in the early morning when the sun was rising, but the new space I found myself in had become "home" to our family.

With our house rented through the summer we needed to make arrangements for places to stay during our summer break. On multiple levels this seemed stressful. We are a family of four--we would be invading the space of anyone we stayed with. God made provision for us--'cuz He does things like that. Friends in Columbia were going to be in Uganda for over a month and offered their home to us. Amazing.

During our month and a half at the Sasser's house we felt like we had a home. We have been living out of suitcases for 2 months, but we had a place to go that gave us space, rest and a sense of security--it was good to not feel like we were floating around every few days or weeks. We are grateful to the Sasser's for the hospitality and their willingness to open their home to us.

Yesterday the kids asked numerous times if we could go visit our old house--the brick house with the big tree. We tried to explain that this might be a little strange to the new owners but they insisted. We were driving near that old house and they asked again. We made a u-turn, pulled up to the old brick house with the big tree and went to the door.

A young couple lives there now--Cindy and JD. Cindy, was very kind and said that we could go see the big tree. It felt a bit surreal. We lived in that house for 10 years. The memories of our time there were flooding over my mind as we stood in the back yard. Zach walked around the tree a few times. He touched the bark and climbed on the trunk.

The house looked different. New paint. French doors to the back yard--something I had always wanted to do. Cindy and JD had made it their home.

As we drove off, Zach said, "the tree isn't as big as it was." Todd said, "you're not as small as you use to be." Zach replied, "I don't like that. I wish it still looked like it did before."

In the next 13 days we will be staying in 5 places--and I'm incredibly grateful for each of these places. But, I'm ready to go "home". I'm ready to unpack the suitcases.

We don't know where we will be living when we return to Korea. We will have a new apartment. We will be in a new neighborhood and need to learn new bus routes. I'm ready though to create that place for our family to call home.

In all of this transition and change there is something greater. This life and all of the places that I live our temporary. There is an eternal home that God is preparing for all of us. In this life, I'm really just a sojourner, a transient. I desire that heaven country, the place where I will be with my Savior and all the people that I've shared this journey with--oceans and land will not separate us.

My hope is that Jesus finds me believing and my heart homesick for Him.

Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.
the message, hebrews 11:13-18