Home Is Where His Heart Is

Have you ever been away from home and woken up in the middle of the night with no idea where you are? This happens to me more often than I like to admit. We travel a lot for ministry, so I stay in a  multitude of unfamiliar beds. By the time Memorial Day rolls around, I will have spent nearly three months of 2019 traveling throughout five foreign countries. Sometimes it feels like I don't know where I actually live.

This week, my husband and I arrived in Taupo, New Zealand where we will spend a month diving deeper into God's love with a group of Christians from across the world. Our home for the month is the most adorable tiny house. It's actually a former cricket pavilion that has been renovated to serve as a B&B. I was delighted to move into our little cottage, but it got me thinking about the meaning of home. 

The Oxford English Dictionary defines home as "the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household." I've lived in a lot of places. When people ask me where home is, I often hesitate. I grew up in Illinois, so in some way that will always be home. Since getting married at 23, I have lived in three additional states and spent three years in the UK. And especially now, as our ministry takes us to far-flung destinations, I feel like I'm rarely home. But as I ponder the definition of home, another perspective begins to take shape. I am a part of God's family. He is my Father, and I am his daughter. So my permanent home must be where he is. But what does that really mean? It's not like I spend my days chilling out on a celestial sofa.

Jesus talks to us about the meaning of home. In John 14, he tells his disciples:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.

I used to think that passage was simply talking about heaven, but the more I've come to know God as my Father, the more I understand Jesus' words. You see, Jesus is the way to the Father. He longs for us to be home. When we choose to follow Jesus, he makes his home in our hearts and inclines us toward our Father through his love (Ephesians 3:17). Because he and the Father are one, both Jesus and the Father make their home with us (John 14:23).

But it doesn't stop there. He enters our hearts, but we also enter his. It is a mystical union in which we are completely transformed and made whole. It is from this place that we grow and bear fruit. I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Father's love opens the door for us to come home -- to be completely at rest and secure in our relationship with him, to know who we are! It is in his heart that we encounter fellowship like none other. It is here that we join a joyous dance with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are never alone. Never forgotten. Never unheard or unseen. In short, we are known, and we are loved. Our true home is in the heart of our Father, and his arms are always open wide to welcome us back when we stray.

Where is your home? Do you ever feel like you're not sure where you belong? Have you longed to encounter a love that never abandons, never condemns, never shames? Are you tired and weary, hanging on by a thread? Jesus has prepared a place for you, and your Father is waiting for you to come home. His love never fails.