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I grew up on a farm in the Panhandle of Texas. In the recesses of my heart, it will always be "home." I loved wheat harvest. Golden heads of ripened wheat are one of God's inspiring portraits in this world. Mom would bring lunch to the field. I remember drinking sweet tea out of a quart ma- son jar complete with the two-part brass lid, the ice causing the glass to sweat in the hot June sun. I loved it all. Driving with dad down the "turnrow" in the morning sun looking down rows of newly sprouted milo. I loved December when we hunted pheasants on our farm. Mom made homemade hot chocolate that had that "film" on top of the rich chocolate brew. Stirring the pot dissolved it and you filled your cup for the third time adding tiny clouds of marshmallows. "Home" is what it was (and in a deep part of me) will always be.
There is a part of all of us that longs for home. We wish we could go back to those halcyon days fondly remembering that "home" was a good life, filled with both joy and heartaches, but always in the comfort and support of those who loved, laughed, cried, and worked alongside each other. There truly is no place like "home."
Paul wrote: "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil. 3:20). Abraham dwelt in Canaan as a sojourner. "He waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10). He, Isaac, and Jacob, trusted in the promises of God. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland" (Hebrews 11:13-14).
They, like us, sought for a true home, a place from which we will never depart (Rev. 3:12). There we will embrace the love of those to whom we are truly kin. There we will breathe the pilgrim's sigh of relief at the first sight of the shores of our permanent "home." We will know with absolute certainty that no one will ever snatch us from the hand of God! We will have crossed over from a land of toil and sorrow to a place where God will wipe away every tear.
And we will never "long" to be anywhere else. We will finally, and forever, be home. And that is something to let dwell deeply in our hearts.
