Do you long for a home?
Deep within each of us is a natural, built-in longing for home.
Heard of the Green Gables stories? Meet the lead character there – the orphan, Anne. She longed to be part of family. She longed for a home.
One day, Anne met an older man named Matthew and his sister Marilla who were on their way home.
Matthew and Marilla took Anne in. On the way to their home, Anne kept on chattering till she stopped and apologized to them for it.
Matthew, a quiet man, responded, “You can talk as much as you like. I don’t mind.”
That’s music to the ears for Anne ! She felt no one would ever want her. Much less, listen to her continuing chatter.
After arriving in their home, Anne’s hopes were somewhat dashed. The other siblings thought they were getting a boy to help as farmhand. She feared being returned.
But Anne’s longing for a loving home was met. Matthew and all his other siblings had embraced her and decided to make her part of their family.
In my clinical practice, I see countless individuals who are “homeless.” They suffer. They experience deep pain. They all long for a real, loving home.
Paul, for instance, came from an abusive, dysfunctional family. He constantly felt unwanted and alone. From his parents down to his youngest sibling, he never felt home.
In his therapy sessions, Paul felt heard and understood. He articulated and expressed himself honestly, and did resolution work. It took time but he got there.
That “home” experience in therapy eventually contributed to his feeling freer to finally heal his wounds and move forward to a better, more adjusted life.
“But there’s more doc, and it’s the most important thing that happened to me,” Paul testified over Zoom. “I found Jesus and got to be a part of God’s family through His salvation and love.”
For Paul, Jesus became his loving, secure home. He finally found the real home and family that he has been longing for for so long.
Do you long for a home?
In today’s Daily Bread, it reads:
“We’ve all had times when we felt unwanted or alone. But when we become a part of God’s family through salvation in Jesus, He becomes for us a secure home (Psalm 62:2). He delights in us and invites us to talk with Him about everything: our worries, temptations, sorrows, and hopes. The psalmist tells us we can ‘find rest in God’ and ‘pour out [our] hearts to him’ (vv. 5, 8).”
Your wait is over here. In Him, earthly and beyond, you’ll find a home that lasts forever.
“When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. . . . Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.” — Hermann Hesse
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