“I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6 NKJV
“Life is just a journey to bring you ever closer to home.”
My thoughts today are about “feeling at home.”
Money magazine prints an annual issue that names the ten best places to live in America. It’s interesting to read the qualities that rank those cities chosen. They are of varying sizes and locations, with many things to recommend the quality of life in each of them.
A lot of time will be occupied considering the question, “Where will I live?” You might give much thought to a particular region of the country (or world) where you want to live, desiring a city with just the right mix of jobs, church, arts, education, recreation, and social structure that you prefer. There you will seek your perfect job, select the right neighborhood, search for the perfect house, and assume you will finally feel at home. But will you? Is that enough?
But home is much more than any combination of those things. Those just provide you a temporary accommodation. Solomon wrote, “God has set eternity in the hearts of men.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV. Home is where you were always meant to be, and where you find the special people with which you were meant to be. That’s where you will most feel at home.
All of life, and the places along the way where you will pause for awhile, is really a journey. That journey is to bring you ever closer to home, an eternal home. That’s why, wherever you are and whatever you have, in the quiet and honest times you may feel an inner sense of homesickness. You have not arrived at your destination yet. You are meant for much more than this world can provide you.
Just this week, I stood at a hospital bedside where a family heard the difficult news of a husband and father’s last hours. When that time of homegoing occurs, the sincere faith and steadfast hope in your heart will draw you toward home. As a pastor, I have observed the tender turn of heart when age or health begin to fail – and a faithful heart turns toward home. Earth fades and Heaven draws near! Stuff won’t mean as much, and family and faith will mean everything.
Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you that where I am you may be also.” John 14:1-4 NKJV. Finally, and only then and there, you will be home, gloriously and forever at home in the House of the Lord, the place you were created to be and enjoy forever, with the One who prepared it just for you. Hold this world and all that is in it loosely; live now as preparing to live forever. Because you will!
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6. King David was sure of that, and so can you be – if you invite the Lord to be your Shepherd. When you know the Shepherd you will feel at home, wherever you are.
My prayer for you today is: though the journey is not easy, the arrival will be wonderful!