HOME!

Anticipating a return from Scotland in the summer, I’ve commenced moving-related endeavors. One of the crucial components of this resettlement to the U.S. is, of course, finding a place to call home. So, during this current trip to Dallas, under the skillful and resourceful guidance of my good friend and real-estate agent Jeff (the other good-looking guy in the picture), I started looking around. Together we scrutinized a dozen homes in the Dallas area. Again. You see, when I first moved to Dallas from Boston in 1999, Jeff and I went through the same operations at that time. Here we were again. I was searching for home.

Peripatetic as I am—the U.K. is the fourth country, and Europe the third continent, I’ve lived in—it seems, on my part, a perpetual undertaking, this quest for home. Indeed, this is not far from being the quest of every believer, one who has been adopted into God’s family at the point when faith was placed in Jesus Christ as Savior from sin. The Bible makes it clear that “this world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ thro’.”

For our citizenship is in heaven,
from which also
we eagerly wait for a Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:20

Therefore, this quest for home will always be unsuccessful on this side of eternity. Here, temporarily situated on earth, we are what Peter calls “resident aliens”. He begins his first letter …

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who reside as aliens,
scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia,
[and Dallas, and Aberdeen,
and Trivandrum, and Kuwait, …]
who are chosen ….
1 Peter 1:1

We are chosen to belong to a new kingdom, part of a new race of the elect.

For He rescued us
from the domain of darkness,
and transferred us
to the kingdom
of His beloved Son.
Colossians 1:13

And this quest for home will find fulfillment only with the reception of that city to which we already belong, in which we are already participants.

So then you are
no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are fellow citizens
with the saints,
and are of God's household.
Ephesians 2:19

Already citizens and members of the household of God, but not in possession of our land, nor our home … yet. The pilgrimage continues; the quest proceeds.

By faith Abraham,
when he was called,
obeyed by going out …
for he was looking
for the city
which has foundations,
whose architect
and builder is God.
Hebrews 11:8, 10

That quest for the eternal home arises so strongly, beckons so irresistibly, and influences so completely, that even in this phase of temporary earthly life, David, the Psalmist, would rather live in God’s abode, God’s home, in the presence of God.

O Lord,
I love the habitation
of Your house
And the place
where Your glory dwells.
One thing I have asked
from the Lord …:
That I may dwell
in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life.
Psalm 26:8; 27:4

Until, one day, when believers get to that blessed home where …

… there will no longer
be any death;
there will no longer
be any mourning,
or crying, or pain ….
Revelation 21:4

And while we pursue this home, remaining as we do in this already-but-not-yet interregnum, Paul lays down a charge.

Therefore we also have
as our ambition,
whether at home
or absent,
to be pleasing to Him.
2 Corinthians 5:9

May we home-seekers, do so—live lives pleasing to Him.

When he comes, our glorious King,
All his ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we'll sing:
Hallelujah! what a Saviour!
Philip P. Bliss (1875)