Welcome Home

June 15, 2020 Georgia Tanner

“There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I would not tell you this if it were not true. I am going there to prepare a place for you. I am the way… And I am the truth and the life. The only way to the Father is through me”. John 14:2,6 ICB

We are all born homeless. This thought finally makes sense to me. It makes sense of the ideas of God and Jesus and church and heaven and hell and eternity. All those loose words feel like pieces of a puzzle I turn around in my hand, trying to get them to line up and fit together perfectly.

We are all born homeless. We just don’t realize it. Some of us were born into gentler neighborhoods, where the sun was shining and the breeze blowing on tree-lined streets. Some of us had to learn to walk around glass and through dark alleyways, keeping an eye out for the coming storm. But all of us were born homeless, looking for our Home.

There are a lot of different ideas out there about how you find your way Home. There are self-proclaimed guides wandering the neighborhood who will tell you they can give you directions. Sometimes the directions sound simple, like “Just believe.” Or “Just have faith.” But the rest of that is a lot more confusing; like believe what? Have faith in who? The answers vary and are just as shrouded in mist. “God is good,” someone will tell you helpfully. Or “Have faith in Jesus.”

Those words may be true - but those nice phrases don’t make any sense, because you really haven’t figured out yet that you are homeless.

And it is so easy to get tangled up in the briars and lost in the woods. Making one wrong turn and then another. Pitch your tent for another night.

So you think to yourself, maybe what I need is Religion. Sort of a road map to help me figure out where I am and where I need to go. And you discover there are apparently lots of ways to find the right path or discover this higher being named God. Ways that limit your behavior with rule-keeping. Ways that teach a specific form of worship or meditation. Some people sign up for a program that helps them feel like they belong; giving them a comfortable room to sit in with people who say yes to the same way of thinking. All of these turn out to be a sort of safe place to hang out… but at the end of the day, everyone is still homeless.

How do you describe ‘Home’ to someone who has never been there? Children find their way there. Yet sometimes the most intelligent adults circle nearby for years, never finding the front door.

There was a man who showed up in the center of the religious world many years ago. He seemed to be homeless, yet he held out a strange invitation: “Come. Follow me.” And he told those who followed, “I know the way Home.”

And I think this is as simple as it is: if you say ‘yes’, and follow him through that door, into his Father’s house, then you are no longer homeless. You are Home. There is food cooking in the kitchen. There is a plate set for you at the table. There is abundance.

There is warm water to wash you clean. Clothing custom made for you. A soft bed to lay down to rest. The people there look at you and see you clearly. They know your name and call you family.

There are no clocks there because time has become something called eternity. There are no locks on the doors. You are free to come and go as you desire because once you have found your way Home, you can always find your way back and the door is always open. There is freedom. There is truth. There is clarity. All the pieces fit together.

So what is the purpose of all this searching and wandering and seeking we do here in this world? Maybe we are all born homeless. And we are all searching for our Home. But we can’t get there on our own. God sent his son with a simple invitation. “Follow me. I am The Way home.”

Questions: Do you ever feel like you just don’t fit in? Do you look at the world around you and feel like an outsider? Maybe you are. Do you think there could be more to this world than what you see?

Home by Chris Tomlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIb4NC5ikYo