Home is...

"Our citizenship is in heaven."

Phil. 3:20a

"We have here no lasting city, but 

We wait for the city that is to come."

Hebrews 13:11

You know since moving to Germany I have found myself using the word "home" in all sorts of different ways.  Thinking about vacation sometime this year I have said things like, "well when we go home this summer..."  By that I mean when we head home to the USA.  When leaving my office at Trinity at the end of the day I have told my colleagues, "I am heading home."  By that I meant our apartment in Frankfurt...  Today Linda and I are in Tel Aviv and in one sense even here I am home .... Not because I live here but because Linda is here. Home is where she and I are together.

So where is home?   Well I guess it's all those places and yet none of those places.  It's the USA because that's our country.  We grew up there.  We are Americans.  and we love it.  Yet we have no house there anymore.  Our US address is Bethany and Jason's address.  Well then home is the USA because that's where our kids and grandkids are...  We can not put into words how much our kids and grandkids are on our hearts.  We love them.  But not all of them live in the US.... Jon and Dora are in Indonesia and moving to Hungary.  Is Frankfurt home? Yes and no.  We live there. We love Trinity.  Yet everything is still so new and someday, God will move us again.  To the Us?  I imagine but who knows?  

So where is home?  Home is all the places I have listed and none of them.  I guess this move... Having to sell or give away most of what we "owned" has driven home to us that we have no "permanent home" in this world.  All our homes here are wonderful but temporary.  Our real home is with our Lord....   "For we have here no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come". Hebrew 13:11. "Our citizenship is in heaven.   And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."  Phil. 3:20-21.  That is so important to understand.  Without that knowledge of home - we would be wanderers in this life, with no place to go.  Because of Jesus... Because he has purchased a home for us in His Father's House, we are pilgrims on our way home... Inviting other to go home with us.  I guess home is where Our Father is.