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A few weeks ago, while still in Alaska, I received a text – “You guys home yet?

But where is home? 

Is it where you - ‘hang your hat’, ‘park it’, ‘make it’, ‘grew up’, ‘return to’…? Is it where your – ‘family is’, ‘heart is’, or where you’re ‘longing for’…?

When I was in the Navy our ship had a ‘home port’, and many of my fellow sailors couldn’t wait to get out, so they could ‘go home’. Keyboards have ‘home’ keys, and websites have ‘home’ pages. Sports teams have ‘home field advantage’, and salesmen (and animals) have ‘home territories’. SIM, our organization talks of ‘home assignment’ when leaving the field for short periods.

Beside the physical, dictionary.com defines home as “the place in which one’s domestic affections are centered.” I think that for many of us that is what home becomes. Not necessarily a physical dwelling, but a place we call home. Where our family or the people we’re connected to are, that’s where home becomes.

Currently, it seems when I’m ‘here’, home becomes ‘there’. If I’m on the road living out of a suitcase, home might be Colorado or Alaska. If I’m in one of those places, then the other becomes home. And  now that we’ve arrived, I’m calling Ghana home (even though we’re still figuring out where we’ll actually live.) So from here the other places become ‘home’.

There have been many songs written about ‘going home’, but recently a fellow missionary shared his, in which he expressed the feelings of leaving home to go home. The place he was called and serving in was his home, as was the place he was returning to. I can relate, I have been there, and expect more of the same.

Many Christians will speak of a heavenly home – the place that awaits after this life. But that’s not about the physical (streets of gold, gates of pearl…), it’s about being in the presence of the One we love, the One who loves us beyond comprehension.

Matthew 8 and Luke 9 tell of what could be considered harsh exchange between Jesus and some of His followers (in many texts under the heading “the Cost of Following Jesus”), where Jesus essentially says following Him means homelessness in this world. Yet, Ephesians 2 tells us we belong to the ‘household of God’.

Leaving the Accra airport; after navigating the Covid protocols, immigration, baggage claim, and customs, each with its own official personnel, there was one last person to pass before stepping out the door. Officially, he said, “Welcome home.”

“You guys home yet?”

Yes. No. Yes. No…

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