Home is...

Ah, we go home today, after a week in Destin, Fla., soaking up the rays and dribbling off our dollars.

Today we go home to see the dogs and the cats and the parsonage and whatever little things that remained home while we packed most of everything we owned and came down here. We go home to return to what is our lives, two churches and telling everyone we can about Jesus. Home to normalcy. Home to, uh, home even if it isn't home since we moved but six weeks ago from what we said was home.

This notion of home is Biblical, by the way. After years of wandering, the Israelites surely noticed when God pronounced the land of Palestine as the HOME of the Jews. Though they would be conquered and displaced and though their temple would be built twice and destroyed twice and it would take until 1947 of our generation, this continues to be the HOME of the Jews.

God said it this way in the book of Numbers: 1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'After you enter the land I am giving you as a home 3 and you present to the LORD offerings made by fire, from the herd or the flock, as an aroma pleasing to the LORD ..."

The key part of this passage is "I am giving you as a home." Home, a place you can call your own. Home, a place where no one can say get out and you have to run immediately. Home, a place that Abram left and Joseph longed for and Job lost and regained. Home, a place that Jesus knew little of on earth. Home, a place that Paul left to start churches and Peter left to follow the Lord. Home, a place that is with great meaning but little value to Christians.

When the Israelites were in captivity, what did they want more than anything? To go home. They would say, often, "Next year in Jerusalem." Meaning, as all Saints fans would relate, NEXT YEAR we will take the journey we've all been waiting for.

That's what was so important and meaningful about what the disciples did when they followed Jesus, or what Jesus did for that matter when he came to earth.

The disciples left everything, including their homes, to follow this Rabboni. Jesus humbled himself enough to leave his home, the most wonderful of all homes, to come to save us.

Home is where we are ourselves. Home is where we are loved and we love the most. Home is where love is most pronounced. Home is beyond familiar. Home is beyond history. Home is beyond the moment.

But let me tell you what home most decidedly is not. Home is not this earth, this world, this time. As my son once wrote in song so wonderfully, this is not my home. This is not something I shall miss, though I will miss the people I've come in contact with for the moment at least. Hopefully I will see them all again one day. I know that I will be there and I have great hopes that so many, many of my dear friends and family will be there.

Then and only then will I see what home is truly like.

We could get into the differences in houses and homes and all that, but important thing to note is that in a home, those we love most are there.

In Revelation, John writes, "1THEN I saw a new [a]sky (heaven) and a new earth, for the former [b]sky and the former earth had passed away (vanished), and there no longer existed any sea.(A)
2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, all arrayed like a bride beautified and adorned for her husband;

3Then I heard a mighty voice from the throne and I perceived its distinct words, saying, See! The abode of God is with men, and He will live (encamp, tent) among them; and they shall be His people, and God shall personally be with them and be their God.(B)

4God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, neither shall there be anguish (sorrow and mourning) nor grief nor pain any more, for the old conditions and the former order of things have passed away.(C)

5And He Who is seated on the throne said, See! I make all things new. Also He said, Record this, for these sayings are faithful (accurate, incorruptible, and trustworthy) and true (genuine)."

That is home, friends. That is the home I miss. That is the home I desire. That's where pets are friends and friends are loved and loved ones are beyond special. Home is where we are most comfortable because we are most loved.

Home is, in a word, heaven.