After which we seek

Being a nomad of late has given me time to reflect on that which most of the world takes for granted at any given moment yet is one of those things most vital to human flourishing, namely that mysterious thing we call home.  If we are lucky, we are born into one.  If we are truly blessed, we enjoy this phenomenon all of our lives, but whatever the current status of our abode, it is a thing we yearn for and desire above all other things our entire lives.  I do not speak of a house or any other particular sort of dwelling place but rather a place where our hearts are at peace and one can often find companionship, love, and joy.  We all have some place we sleep and go about the rudiments of living, with or without some sort of family, roommates, or friends, but this may not actually be home.  Home is that place where the strife and clamor of the outside world ceases, where peace and love dwell.  Many of us have little known such bliss, yet we long ceaselessly for it.  It is the place where all true stories begin and end and thus, so does this story called life.  Before God made man, he made a garden to settle him in and it was this place above all others that the Enemy most despises and wishes to destroy.  So it was in the Beginning and so it will be until we find that ultimate home where one story ends and another is about to begin.

          

Perhaps one reason I love The Lord of the Rings so much is that it is a book/movie ultimately about home.  Certainly our heroes set out on a journey, but they set out to, ‘save the Shire,’ as Frodo puts it in the movie and the prequel is rightly titled, at least in part, ‘There and Back Again.’  The world can be a cold, cruel, and lonely place, but a light left on at night for the errant wanderer’s return can drive away the chilliest claws of loneliness.  We think power or money or fame will make us happy, give us contentment, but really only home can do that.  A place of family, friends, warmth, music, light, joy, food, fun, contentment, and peace.  Yet we can never find home if we seek only our good, our own selfish ends.  Home requires love, commitment, and sacrifice on the part of all for the good of everyone.  It is the same God asks of each of us and in Him we find our true home, no matter how cold the winds of the world blow.  So it was with a little baby, He who made the Universe in fact, on a cold night, born in a stable somewhere with only a couple of young peasants and a few scruffy shepherds for company, yet there was home.  Home in a cattle stall as the old hymn goes.  So too can we find Home, wherever and whenever we are, if only in our hearts.  For where the peace of God dwells, there are His people at Home.