Homesick?

Where’s home for you? I was talking to a missionary couple I know who are back in Canada for a few weeks to see their parents and family. The surprising thing that the wife said to me is that Canada is not “home” for them. Their hearts are really in another region of the world where they minister and have lived for many years.

Have you heard the saying, “Home is where the heart is”? In these verses, home was the dwelling place of the Lord Almighty, the courts of the Lord. I tried to imagine yearning or being “homesick” for the physical temple, or in our case, the building called the church. Somehow, I don’t think it’s necessarily a physical place where this writer’s heart and flesh cry out for the living God.

For anyone who’s been homesick for “home”, is it the building so much as who else lives there? Maybe one who travels misses the comfort of one’s bed, for example, but more than a piece of furniture, it is the feeling of being home where one belongs.

Do you ever miss God? So much so that you would search for him anywhere that he could be found? Do you long to be as near to him as birds’ nests built close to the altar? I can imagine this writer sitting in view of the temple and seeing both a sparrow and a swallow flying to their nests, where they would feel safest, built in an alcove very near to God’s house. He longs to be as close to God as those birds are to the altar which represents God’s presence.

There are days when I long for something more meaningful than the daily grind. The truth is that God is never further away than a prayer, and when I open the Bible, his Word, I know that he comes close to talk to me about what I am reading.

One way to deal with homesickness is just to keep busy, so perhaps if you or I do not yearn for God and heaven, it is perhaps because we numb ourselves with other pastimes and pursuits, in lieu of being close to God. At the end of the day, I know that I want something more, and as I get older, I think I am beginning to see why my heart does not feel like it is “home” yet!

Father God, help me to acknowledge the homesickness that I feel, and how I long for so much more than what I can experience in this earthly life. I acknowledge that I have been filling my flesh and soul with whatever I can find to satisfy the yearning that I have for my true home. Teach me to let go of stuff here and to reach for the living God! Amen.

Throughout this day: Think about what “homesickness” feels like to you. Allow yourself to release whatever might keep you from seeking after God and your true home. Open your palms and give up these substitutes that will not really satisfy you in the long run. Allow yourself to be homesick for heaven and God’s presence, and choose to begin to live with an eternal perspective.