Home At Last!

John 15:4a – Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. (MSG)

This summer, you may have experienced the relief of coming home from a holiday trip. You breathed a sigh when you crossed the threshold into your familiar abode. You could relax and merge into familiar surroundings. You were home at last.

That reminds me of our spiritual home. Jesus said, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." (John 14:23 NIV 2011)

That's quite a domestic arrangement: We make our home in God, and God makes His home in us. Here, we experience His presence. Here, refreshing streams of mercy never cease. Here, our hearts are sealed with His. Here, God's goodness, like a fetter, binds our hearts to Him. This is home! We never need a vacation from here; we just want to stay.

Yet, we are prone to wander. We drift from Christ's teachings. We depart on trips into self-centred preoccupations, societal or religious distractions, anxieties, or whatever lures us from the God we love. We eventually find ourselves strained and depleted by it all, and that's what draws us home — at last.

I wonder, have you returned home recently, perhaps after a brief departure into the busyness of life? Or was it an extended trip through a "far country"? I wonder if you are now singing praises to Him Who has received you home at last, back to the familiarity of His sweet presence.

Perhaps just now, you see your need to flee from the spiritual wilderness and go home, to cross that threshold, and leave it all behind. If so, may this be your own prayer today:

Prayer: O Lord, come to my wandering heart and draw me home. Here is my heart: O take and seal it for You. As I dwell with You, I will wait patiently for the day when I depart from this earthly tent and fully come home — at last. Amen.