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At the end of May this year, Sarah and I cleared out our apartment in Traverse City. We had sold several items, donated several more, stored a few, and we managed to fit the rest of our earthly belongings in our car. We spent one final Wednesday night with the youth group at Bible Baptist Church.

As we were getting ready to leave Traverse City to move to South Carolina, Pastor Dan (the youth pastor) came over and said with a chuckle, “Hey, you guys are homeless now!”

It was true. I hadn’t thought about it until that moment (maybe I was just in denial), but we were “homeless” in a way. Until God brings us to Mexico to settle down, we are nomads.

But what is “home”?

Is “home” really just a place? Or is it something much deeper?

I believe “home” has much more to do with a sense of belonging. “Home” is where you feel accepted and loved. In other words, I think “home” has a lot more to do with relationship than with location. Home is more a person than a place.

I feel at home when I’m with family, and especially when I’m with Sarah. I’ve also felt at home with close friends at times.

But I’m learning that even once we’ve settled down in Mexico and been there for years, I still won’t feel completely at home. My longing for belonging will not ultimately be fulfilled in this world, and I will only be frustrated if I seek to satisfy it here.

That’s because I belong with God. As Augustine said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” God didn’t make me to belong here, and my heart will be restless until I look to God to fulfill that longing.

C.S. Lewis said it in Mere Christianity as well: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

No one, no place, and no thing in this world can completely satisfy the desire of my heart to belong, to be at home. Only God can.

That’s what Paul tells us in Philippians 3:20. This world is not our ultimate home. Rather, “we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.” (NLT)

So where is “home” for you?

I’m finding more and more that the closest I feel to being at home on earth is when I’m walking in a deep, intimate relationship with God. It is a small foretaste of the joy to come. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11, ESV)

For me, “Home” is with God.

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