There’s No Place Like Home

It’s an understatement to say I don’t care much for camping. Perhaps partly because the very first time our family went on an overnight camping trip, our youngest started vomiting at one in the morning. All night long, I carried her back and forth between our tent and the public bathroom with the smell of throw up clinging to both of us. I can still vividly remember the intense desire I had to go home. I wanted to provide comfort for my toddler in her own bed at home. I wanted to afford her privacy in our bathroom at home. I wanted to take a long hot shower at home. I just wanted to go home.

Home.

What do you think of when you hear the word? I envision the house where I live today and all that’s in it. I love the white down comforter on my bed. I love my sunny yellow kitchen. And I love to sink into my own comfy sofa. I travel regularly and being on the road creates such longing for my home and of course, for the people I love most of all, my family.

But there’s a verse in the Bible that broadens my perspective on what home really means for me as a Christian. Psalm 90:1 says, “Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!” In this Old Testament verse, the writer likens God to home. The verse was actually a prayer prayed by Moses when the Israelites found themselves wandering in the wilderness. After years of traveling around, I can only imagine how homesick they must have felt. No doubt the weary travelers wanted to find that Promised Land and finally establish a home. I can’t say that I blame them. The Israelites were quite tired of rolling up those tents and following Moses around that dusty desert. They wanted some stability and some comfort. They just wanted a home. And yet Moses announced that God was their home.

When I first read Psalm 90:1, I thought about it for a long time. And I wondered if I honestly thought of God with as much longing as I did when I thought of my home. Did I miss him when I didn’t pray and read the Bible and go to church? Or was I ever distracted by other activities – traveling far away from him with my daily chores and errands and entertainments? It was a good thing for me to think about because as much as I love the house where I live and the precious people I live with . . . I love God even more. He is to be my home – my real and lasting home. And you know what? I need to constantly remember that. So I repeat these words of Moses, in agreement. And I know as far as my heart or body may travel, He will always be my home . . . my comfort, my stability, my desire. The Lord God is my home.