Have
you ever been unsure where your home is…not because you are lost but because
you are found? As Christians we all have
more than one home. In the words of the
old hymn: this world is not my home, I’m
just a traveling through…
Jean
and I know the feeling. We are
travelers. At the moment we are once
again “home”: the United States, Minnesota, Bemidji. But in the past ten months our travels have
taken us to a new “home”: China, Henan Province, Xinzheng, Sias University. When we arrived there ten months ago—this was
not home. We were foreigners in a
strange land. When we left China a few
days ago, we left places that have become more familiar than foreign, and we
left people who have become more friends and family than strangers. We are glad to be back at our Stateside
home—we have friends and family here as well—but we look forward to our return
to China in August.
We
have experienced this sense of displacement before: previously we have called “home”
both Africa, Liberia, Monrovia; and South Asia, Bangladesh, Savar. Fellow travelers know the feeling. We are both homeless, and yet have many
homes. In the words of an early
Christian writer (from The Letter to
Diognetus, author unknown, date about 200AD)
They [Christians] live in their own countries, but
only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure
everything as foreigners. Every foreign
land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land.
For
Christians every foreign land is a home land and every home land is a foreign
land. Christians can be at home
anywhere, but they are never really at home anywhere.
Where
is home? For Christians, it is with our Father and with our heavenly
family. Someday our travels will take us
there, and for the first time we will realize the real meaning of the word:
home.
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