Where Home Is

I'm home at last, after two months of wandering north, south and west. I do not say this to diminish in any way the fellowships and hospitalities that I enjoyed, but to say simply, with abandonment, "I'm home at last." 

Think about those four little words for a moment. Think about the joy that is hidden in them. Think about the hunter home from the hill, the sailor home from the sea, the soldier home from the terrors of war, and the child home from the streets where he had been lost then found again. Think about the word "home" and what it means to you. Think about the words, "at last" that breathe free. Think about the day that is coming when we will shout it all the way into eternity, "I'm home at last..."

We can only imagine that day. Since the moment we were conceived in our mothers' wombs we have been desired in our Father's house. He waits for our journeys of learning here to be completed so we can come home and receive our inheritance. There we will put on the most beautiful wedding gown an adoring Bride can envision as we slip our hand into the hand of our Bridegroom - free at last - home at last - forever and ever...

I know there are many who do not understand the Christian who watches and waits for the shout of the Lord, "Arise and come to me." They think a great deal of this old world and are not exactly anxious to leave it. I can understand those who stand with Apostle Paul's debate, "If I go home it will be better for me but if I remain here it will be better for you." But to those that simply love this old world more than they love their Lord I would say, "The home we run to today cannot compare with the home that awaits the faithful in the world of our Lord."

Though we be filled with the Spirit of the Lord, and our homes filled with the presence of our Lord, they are still wanting for the manifestation of the King of kings. Here we worship Him in Spirit, there we will look upon Him and adore Him face to face.

Our home here is the place where we live, where we labor in love and where we reseed the next generation. We call it home, for lack of a better identification, and we distinguish our own four walls from all others with that simple word, "home." And in some corners of this old world there is joy in the home that overshadows the corners that know not God. When there is light in the house there is delight at the table. When there is darkness in the house there is no peace.

Whether our earthly home is a castle or a hut, whether we are prosperous or poor, whether we are learned or "get by," whether we live in a high rise or a cardboard box, we have a future home we will go to when we leave this one, and we are building that new home daily, wherever, with whatever and with whomever we live in this old world. We build a new house of light with faith plus works or we build a house of darkness with doubts, complaints and rejection.

The Holy Word tells us that God hates a complainer - thus the early demise of the children in the wilderness who complained about the steady diet of manna, wanting meat, ungrateful for the blessings already given to them. We are forbidden to judge the hearts of others. We can judge their works and their words, but not their hearts. Only God has that sovereign responsibility - and I do call it a responsibility and not a privilege. You see, the responsibility of Divine judgment is dependent upon the Divine wisdom of the Judge whose Divine mercy flows from the Divine love that flows from the throne of Grace where our real home is.

And because God's judgment is always an act of mercy - His effort to draw a wayward people back to Himself and His great salvation - the responsibility of Divine judgment can never be assigned to mortal men for execution.

Jesus said he was returning to Heaven to prepare a place for each of us. It will be a home of glorious work, supervised if not actually built by the master carpenter Himself. There, in the New Jerusalem, families long separated will be reunited, children will find their parents and parents will find their children.

Millions of rejected babies are growing up in Heaven. Can you imagine them crawling between the feet of Jesus, sitting on His lap, burping on His shoulder and laughing at the yank of His beard? These little ones, like the mighty angels that protect them, find laughter and joy in the only home they have ever known. There they are loved more than they know, and wanted at last.

Jesus is our home - our real home. Whether in this world or in the next, He is our door, our light, our security and our delight at the table. We look and we walk toward Him and toward home - the eternal home we anticipate in a land we anticipate as we watch, listen, wait and prepare for the journey. One day soon, Jesus will tarry no more...