What do you think of when you hear the word home? Do you think of a dwelling? A place to belong? Anywhere you hang your hat? Home is not a building or a place, but it is a place where we feel that we belong isn’t it. It is a place of being cherished and cherishing others around you, family and friends. In reality, isn’t “home” about being in relationship with others whom we feel a connection. It is a place where our hearts long to be… a place of comfortable relationships and a feeling of belonging.
There is a place like that. It has been instilled within us from our conception. Into each human being at a DNA kind of level. Eventually this world come us short. Eventually we find there is no place on this earth that is home. Age, circumstance, etc.. leave us knowing this. We seek to be in a better place. The place where we long to be is… with God.
Humankind has searched for God since the beginning of time, it is part of our story. The search for God has been mandated by God so that eventually we can indeed realize that God was never lost, just not clearly seen by us. Being with God is literally like being at home. John 14:20 says, “… you will know absolutely that I'm in my Father, and you're in me, and I'm in you.” Theologian Baxter Kruger puts it like this, “if you take three books and put them together, you still have three books. But what if the three books could read each other? What if they managed to read each other so thoroughly and perfectly that they all began to say the same thing (just) in their own way? Thus, God is like that. God is three persons, (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) but they are not separate, they read each other.”
While you may have already known that about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, did you know that you are also involved? Here is good news. Jesus came to earth to bring us into this eternal circle of relationship. Like a father coming home from a long trip and having his son or daughter jump into his arms and celebrate with joy that “Daddy is home”, so too we
have a place with our heavenly Father. The life of Jesus was not only for our sin, but it did something to and with us as well. Jesus’ life placed a bridge across a chasm that was too great for us to cross. As Adam and Eve broke our relationship with God, Jesus repairs our relationship for good. Suddenly in Jesus, our home is assured. No longer are we abandoned or alone, we are adopted and rescued from a life of self centeredness and brought into a life of selflessness. It reminds me of how Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion see the Emerald City in the distance and run toward it.Do you believe what I have been saying? The Bible insists that this is true. There are no magic words or potions or secret knowledge or buttons or actions or anything to be done. It is just true! It is not about being religious or baptized or how good you are. It is only about the fact that God loves you and has made it possible for you to be with Him forever. Can you believe that? If you can, that is all it takes, that is faith! That is all you do, believe it. Believe the fact that God knows your name and cherishes and accepts you. You may have been deceived by the world and may think yourself homeless or abandoned by God. But it is not true. St. Augustine said, “God has made us and our hearts are restless until we rest in God.” I pray this piece of information will continue to deliver you from the lie of abandonment and homelessness. God loves you. God has, in Jesus, adopted you as His own and you are never too bad or too far away for God to be loved. The rescue party has been sent and you have been saved, “There’s no place like home… there’s no place like home.” And there isn’t. You’ve been there all along, you just may not have known it. Now you do.
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