Home :)

"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."

There is no place like Home :)

But what IS home?

One of the biggest hassles of moving to Goondiwindi has been setting up "home base" here. I've got a whole two-story two-bedroom unit to myself - some may think it's awesome to have a lot of space, but that would be forgetting that more space means more CLEANING that you have to do >< It has been quite an effort to get everything cleaned up and set up so it looks more like a home rather than some run-down insect hive.

My first week several weeks ago was rather interesting, because I barely had any furniture. I was eating off chairs, and doing my work on the floor. I also didn't have a freezer!... Which was terrible because it meant I didn't have icecream!! ><

When I finally came back, I managed to bring in one table, procure another table from the practice, and bought myself a fridge that had a freezer. Instantly the house had a different feel. My paperwork was no longer on the floor; I could eat at a table now; and I had icecream :)

But still, the house is pretty empty. So the question arose: Would I get anything else for this place? After thinking about it a bit, I realised I probably won't be getting much, if any, more furniture for this place, because my training dictates that in a year's time I will be moving elsewhere. Furthermore, I plan to go back to Brisbane as soon as I practically can :P So it wouldn't make sense for me to accumulate all this furniture and then have to figure out some way to haul it back to Brisbane! I didn't mind the sparseness because I anticipated that I will go back to a much better place (my real home in Brisbane) relatively soon.

And that made me think about my Spiritual Home.  My real, real, home. As Paul indicates in Philippians, our real citizenship, the place where we really belong now, is in Heaven. We don't belong on this Earth any more, because we have been redeemed by our Father. And given that fact, there is (supposed to be) very little reason for us to be so attached to our Earthly lives.

Yet this is not the case. Even as Christians, most of us live as if we've always lived here, and always will be. We're so busy building up our own little empires, like ants building a massive hive unaware that some human is about to pour boiling water down on them and destroy their lives. (Sorry, I've been dreaming a lot about ant-destruction lately because of the ant infestation in my house :P). Our real home may be in Heaven, but if we're truly honest with ourselves, the deepest parts of our hearts believes that Home is some place on Earth (whether physically in a particular city, or socially in relationship with a particular group of people).

I had a taste of that tonight. I decided to "attend" a prayer-meeting back in Brisbane via Skype. It was quite fun and interesting. But straight afterward, a huge pang of homesickness struck me. I wanted to go back.

And it made me contemplate on a few things. Why did I attend the prayer meeting? Was I honestly interested in praying for God's Kingdom to come, or was it simply so I could bask in the presence of the feeling of "home" in Brisbane? Where did I really think my Home was? Was it Heaven or was it Brisbane? If I'm homesick for Brisbane, am I homesick for Heaven? What would happen if I was as homesick for Heaven as I was for Brisbane?

Obviously the whole situation pointed to a flaw in my desires, and that's ok, because we're all growing towards Christlikeness. But it does give me a direction to grow towards :)

So for those brothers and sisters in Christ who are far away from home and feeling homesick: Yes, it's painful, and no, there's nothing I can say to lessen the burden. But remember that even if you do go back to your Earthly home, we're not really "Home" yet; it's just a temporary stopover. We're all temporary residents, no matter where we are. And it helps to remember where we're heading :)

And for those brothers and sisters in Christ who are comfortable at home: Don't get too comfortable :P Otherwise you're in for a rude shock when you really do get dragged Home by the scruff of your neck. Live not as citizens of this World, but as citizens and ambassadors of the Next.

One day, we can say Home, Sweet Home.

But not yet :)