Do you love where you are from? I certainly know a lot of people who do. And I'm one of them.
When I was in graduate school a common question I got asked is if I'd return to Tennessee once I graduated. "Not necessarily. Don't know where the whims or plans of life will take me." I'm a planner, sure. But I wanted to be open to where I thought God wanted me. It seemed the reason that many people asked me this was because it was their own plan for their own life.
Mid-westerners wanted to go back to the corn fields and winds of the plain and farm states. Southerners wanted to go back to the hospitality and Bible-beltishness of the glorious South. Californians wanted to go back to the high-energy and diversity of the far west. Texans had their own weird Texas pride that I will never understand.
But then there were also tranplants- people that have always wanted to live and really live in Colorado. To them, the mountains would always be home no matter where they're from. And they wanted to stay here.
And lastly, there's those select transient few that are never really satisfied where they are because there are new and exciting adventures to be had. Colorado and mountains are great, but so are beaches and warm weather. Small towns offer a quaint charm but big cities also offer entertainment and non-stop excitement. There's always something new to experience that seems so elusive.
And no matter our disposition towards home we're still all seeking it. Home could be found in rest or excitement or both, but no matter who we are we are seeking home. We long for a nostalgia that's not entirely possible, or we long for an experience that cannot really be had. C.S Lewis, the classic Christian apologist, had this to say about our predicament:
"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world."
Those longings for home are real and they really point to something. Real home is found in Jesus Christ and his ultimate home in a new heaven and new earth, where all evils and sorrows cease forever. Justice will be had and evil dealt with (Revelation 21-22). Only perfect good will remain. And our longing for nostalgia will be realized. Our thirst for ever-increasing excitement will finally be quenched.
We will be home. Finally.
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3 comments:
David,
I loved this post! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Laurie
Amen. I think the longing for the eternal can be a strong apologetic argument for the existence of God - speaking from an evolutionary standpoint, dissatisfaction with this world is a maladaptive trait. Above and beyond that, though, you speak a truth that is a balm to my soul today...
I think that is always why I have been looking forward to the day I will actually be "home". Moving so much will do that to you. Great post David, I think that desire for a real home is a strong apologetic, especially to the more transient culture we live in.
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