We recently returned from a week long vacation which was relaxing and fun and we got to see our son.

When you come back from vacation or a work trip and you step into your house you instantly feel at home. The minute you walk in the door and smell the scents of your house, your shoulders relax and a feeling of comfort and pleasure soaks into your very core. You kick off your shoes and drop into your favourite chair. Home! Where you can be yourself, you know where everything is and you feel safe and comfortable.

I also remember going back to my Mom’s house to visit and getting that same feeling of being home again. I felt like I belonged, and always seemed to eat more of things I tried to stay away from like cookies, pies, cupcakes, etc.. Funny, my sons do the same thing!

Before I became a believer and was searching for God, I attended an English night course and my professor invited me and my family to an Easter Cantata at his church. Intrigued, I convinced my husband to go. When we arrived at the large church we entered through one of the sets of big glass double doors. On the other side in the lobby were people waiting to greet us and welcome us. I still remember my immediate thought, “I’m home.” This was the beginning of my reunion with the Lord.

Is this what it will feel like when I get to heaven? When I see Jesus for the very first time or am ushered into the throne room of Almighty God, will my soul breathe a sigh of relief and whisper, “I’m home!”

Will it feel like a big family reunion? Eternally home with no stress, no worry, no concerns; safe in the everlasting arms of Abba!

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Corinthians 5:1 NKJV

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:-4 NIV

Yet, even though we have to wait to go to our eternal home, God has made his home with us here on earth. We are His temple now and he sent His Spirit, when we believed on His Son, as a guarantee of our inheritance.

‘”My home is God Himself”; Christ brought me there.

I laid me down within His mighty arms;

He took me up, and safe from all alarms

He bore me “where no foot but His hath trod,”

Within the holiest at Home with God,

And bade me dwell in Him, rejoicing there.

O Holy place! O Home divinely fair!

And we, God’s little ones abiding there.”

Author Unknown, a selection from Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles Cowman

“Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.'” John 14:23 NIV

So my friends, even if you never had a place you could call home, when you “seek his kingdom and his righteousness”, you can; here and forever!

Be well!

Patricia