HOMEsick!

I was sworn in as an American citizen over a year ago, but the day before and the day after my swearing-in didn’t seem overly different from each other. Though I had been in the U.S. for about two decades at that point, I didn’t realize how much of the U.S. was in me, until I moved from that land. Maybe it was the loss of home and friends, used book stores and CD outlets, tolltags and taxes, dermatology and preaching, .... Maybe even the food. Correction: Definitely the food.

The week that I arrived in Scotland I paid my respects to the local purveyor of items grocery related, and picked up a jar of what appeared to be peanut butter—at least it was labeled as such. Even the brand had the look of the genuine article: it said “Route 66 Peanut Butter.” How much more American can you get?

Lots!

After consuming one spoonful of the aforementioned "stuff," I dumped the entire bottle. Woe was I! What kind of a land was I in, without peanut butter worth the name? I determined to catch the next flight home!

NOT!

Anyhow … today I was gifted an incredible treasure. (See picture of me in ecstatic bliss!) A fellow-American and fellow-PG in divinity—bless his kind heart; must be the DTS blood that runs therein—obtained a bottle of the precious commodity for me. Now, if you look carefully, the bottle says “SKIPPY.” Of you PB gourmands, I beg forgiveness. I know, I know, there ain’t nothin’ like JIF—the creamy sort, of course. But this poor beggar can’t afford to be a chooser. Gosh, I’d even settle for a bottle of Kroger’s (not that I’ve anything personal against that venerable chain).

Anyway, as I was saying, it was the feel of foreign soil that made me yearn for home. And as I write this, I remind myself that no matter where I am in this world, it is all foreign soil to me. For those of us who have placed our trust in Christ for our salvation, we can echo the sentiments of the apostle: “For our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). Those sparkles of God’s grace, those glimpses of heaven that we have from this side are what keep us yearning for Home, just as SKIPPY made me hanker for the good ole’ US of A. (I never thought I’d get to a point where I’d compare peanut butter to God’s grace, but I have. So there!)

Soon and very soon …. Until then, may God’s grace strengthen us all to keep on going.


By faith [Abraham] lived as an alien
in the land of promise,
as in a foreign land …
for he was looking
for a city
which has foundations
whose architect and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:9–10