Day 18
Homeland
To Start
Normally, we sit quietly and wait for God. Today, let’s start with a little meditation, and welcome Him in.
Get comfortable, close your eyes, and focus your attention on the idea of “home.” What pictures come to mind? What feelings?
Now invite God in. Ask Him to show you “home”—to reveal where you’ve made your home (for good or bad) and to reveal your ultimate home.
Pray
Yahweh,
As we read about our identity, show us the truth and the lies we believe.
As we read about our destiny, show us the truth and the lies we believe.
As we read about our desires, show us the truth and the lies we believe.
As we read about You, show us the truth and the lies we believe.
Amen.
Read
Read Hebrews 11:13-16.
We’ll read these same verses today, tomorrow, and Saturday. Today we’ll focus on the word “homeland” and the concept of identity. Tomorrow we’ll talk about desire. Saturday we’ll talk about destiny and the God Who’s preparing a city.
As you read today,
Ask God to open your eyes to see. Ask Him to move you where you need to be moved.
Summarize verses 14 and 15.
What is the home Abraham was looking for? How do we know he wasn’t longing for Ur?
What does it mean to “seek a homeland”? The Greek word translated “seeking” is “epizetéo” which means, “to enquire for, to crave, to search for diligently.”
What does it look like to search diligently for a heavenly homeland?
Hebrews 11:13-16
13These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. 14 Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. 16 But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
From JL
You’re a guest at a wedding, and you have to introduce yourself to the strangers at your table. What do you say? Four things always find their way to the top of the list: name, location, work, relationship to the bride and groom. Seems like a superficial description for a complicated self, but these details are deeper than they seem. They’re markers of identity:
We are what we’re called. We are where we’re from. We are what we do. We are who we love.
Let’s zoom in on “where we’re from.”
I am a Florida girl. Born and raised beside the Gulf, I love seafood and swimming, sunshine and pelicans. I’ve tried to make a home elsewhere (so many elsewheres), but I can’t wash the salt out of my hair.
I have a friend born and raised in Nebraska. She feels the same way about the plains, midwestern values, and meadowlarks. She hates the mountains; they crowd out the sky. The ocean makes her nervous.
You have a homeland, too. Even if it’s not a place. Maybe your homeland is the smell of your grandmother baking or the rumble of your dad’s pickup truck or the sound of your wife’s voice.
Home is where you feel safe. Home is where you feel loved. Home is peace and joy, grace and freedom. Home is where the boundaries of self get blurry—us more than me.
Home is who we are.
We are where we’re from. Or better, We are where we belong.
So, Who are you?
For Abraham, this search for a homeland defined his life. He wasn’t Abraham, the guy from Ur. He wasn’t Abraham, living in Canaan. He was Abraham, home-as-yet-unfound (but seen from a distance). And that restless anticipation shaped the way he lived.
If there’s anything I hope we’re struck by in Hebrews 11 it’s this truth that we are a people seeking a homeland.
We said yesterday that our anti-citizenship should direct our way of life. Today, consider how your actual citizenship might shape your life.
If the city to come is your home, who are you?
What does a citizen of the city of God do? How do they speak? What are they like?
About ten years ago, I got serious about letting my heavenly citizenship take root in my heart. It’s hard to explain exactly what I did, but I think it’s something like finding out you’ve been adopted from another country. You jump into research. You eat food from your home country. You look at pictures of people from your home country. You learn the language. You study their literature and music. You might even make a pilgrimage of sorts.
It’s like all of a sudden you understand who you are, and you can’t stop becoming more and more that person.
When my girls were little I would tell them this true story:
You are citizens of Heaven. That is your home. One day, you’ll arrive there, and you’ll walk up to the gate or door or golden road, and you’ll be stunned, because the people there look like you and talk like you. It’ll be like meeting family members you’ve never met—same mannerisms, same twinkle in the eyes, same laugh coming up from a deep, deep spring. You’re going to feel so happy.
But until then, your goal is to live like you’re already there. It will feel weird, because here isn’t like there. Do it anyway. Learn the language and customs. Celebrate the holidays. Learn the stories. Learn all you can about God.
Be brave, because in Heaven everyone is brave. Be kind, because in Heaven everyone is kind. Abound in joy. Walk in peace. Forgive the people who hurt you. That’s how everybody does it there. It will feel silly sometimes, like you’re pretending. But you’re not. You’re practicing.
You’re practicing so that one day, when you get there, you’ll already know the ropes. And home will feel like home.
Process
Try to identify citizens of the city of God in the wild! Look for the telltale signs (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control).
You might even look for the signs in your own life.
In the comments
Let’s get practical together:
What should one do if she realizes Heaven isn’t really the home upon which her heart is set? How do we cultivate a sense of home?
Godspeed,
JL
I really appreciate the JL's, story she shared with her girls. I love the idea that we are practicing on this earth so the we know the ropes! Focusing on practicing the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control helps put a new perspective of why we want to do these things beyond the conviction! There is a homecoming purpose. The idea of being welcomed by family members who have gone before me. This is a beautiful reality.
This bit about "home" can get complicated. For the first six weeks of my life, my name was Michael Retallick, my mother an unmarried 19 year old coed at Miami University. And then I was adopted and renamed Arthur Going. From a family with deep Cornish roots in England to a descendant family of German immigrants. One city (Cincinnati) until I was 18, and then a succession of places, including ten moves in ministry. Let's just say it has not been a Wendell Berry life! But one day my wife said to me, when I was lamenting what all the moves had meant, "Home is where you are." Add to that our deeper conviction that we are called to abide--to make our home--in Jesus and the perspective changes. And then to live, wherever we are, with a longing for the heavenly City... did I say complicated at the beginning? How about rich and wondrous?