There’s a moment when I step off the plane and my feet hit the tarmac that is hard to describe. No matter how tired I am or how grumpy the children are after a long flight across the Atlantic, when I finally see the sign that says, “Welcome to Scotland,” it all melts away. After months of anticipation and longing, I am finally home.
I have lived in the United States for almost fourteen years now, and that indescribable sense of belonging when I return to my homeland is still as strong as ever. I have spent most of my married life in Upstate New York—raising children, making great friends, finding meaningful employment, celebrating milestones, and experiencing God’s good gifts—but there is still an undeniable sense of incompleteness, of uprootedness. A sense of being far from home.
As I’ve navigated this tension over the years, I can’t help but see parallels to the Christian experience. Scripture makes it clear that this world is not our true home. In fact, Paul says that “all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:22 NLT) as we universally long for the future glory that has been promised. The discomfort we feel, the sense of being ‘out of place’ in the current cultural context, the longing we have for something better, for something more—this tells us we are viewing our place in the world with the proper perspective. We do not belong here. We are “ambassadors for Christ” whose true “citizenship is in heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:20; Philippians 3:20 ESV). “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14 NET).
Does this describe your relationship with the world? Do you see yourself as living on mission in a foreign climate, allowing God to make his appeal through you (2 Corinthians 5:20)? Or have you become too comfortable, too familiar with the culture you find yourself in that “you fit into it without even thinking” (Romans 12:2 MSG)?
Today, I encourage you to reorient yourself to your present purpose and future hope. May your homesickness, your longing, be a reminder that the evil and suffering of this world, though terrible, is temporary, and the best is yet to come. And when we see Jesus, face to face, we will exhale with a peace that comes from knowing we are finally Home.