#1204 – Home

Home means a lot of different things to us throughout our lives.

When we were younger home meant the house in which we grew up.

During high school my youth group felt like home.

When I was working at Community Baptist Church the church definitely felt like another home.

For the past three years my actual home has been a one-bedroom apartment I’ve shared with Alycia and our dog.

This coming weekend home is going to change again. As part of my transition out of being a pastor and exploring different ministry opportunities, Alycia and I are moving in with her mom and her stepdad. They’re great people and have honestly wanted us to move in with them ever since we got married. They’re hospitality and generosity are true reflections of God’s heart.

I have to admit that it is a little weird to be moving in with my in-laws at the age of 34. I feel a little bit like Matthew McConaughey in Failure to Launch except I don’t spend my days looking for reasons to take off my shirt (though if I looked like Matthew McConaughey with my shirt off I probably would). I know that Alycia and I are in a stage of transition and I’m so grateful to my in-laws for opening up their home, but creating a new home is always a difficult process.

Our home is now going to be 30 minutes away from my job, our church and most of our friends. And hopefully our home will be back in Rancho Cucamonga someday, ideally with Elphie and even some children of our own.

And someday even further still, if we’re followers of Jesus, our home will be with God. But where exactly is that home going to be?

I’m definitely not going to give a full academic treatise on eschatology, mostly because I had Systematic Theology 3 a long time ago and would need to do some more research. I will say, though, that our home with God is going to have a lot more in common with our home here than some people think.

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” – Revelation 21:1-4

At the end of everything we are not going home, but home is coming to us. This is one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible because it beautifully paints what’s to come. This world does have its share of troubles and sorrows, but eventually heaven will come to earth, God will dwell among us and everything will be made right. Our home here on earth will finally be the home it was intended to be.

So songs like the classic “I’ll Fly Away” or Steven Curtis Chapman’s “Not Home Yet,” while encouraging, missed the mark a little bit. We’re not flying away to our real home at the end, but we’re already home. Our home is a perpetual work in progress, but eventually Jesus will return and there won’t be anymore weekend projects. Our home will be complete and we’ll never have to move again.

What are your views on where our eternal home is going to be?