Someone who gives us a home

Well we’ve all been at home, with just a few brief daily excursions to the shops or for exercise for around 6 weeks now. Do you remember 6 weeks ago, Boris Johnson saying very forcefully to the country, “Stay at home”. Actually a lot has happened for Boris in that time, just a few weeks later he was in intensive care, and a few weeks after that he was rejoicing at his home with the birth of his new son. But all this time, most of us have been obeying the advice and staying at home.

How are you finding it being at home? Perhaps for some home feels like a wonderful place of safety and refuge away from it all. You feel safe at home. Maybe you have a garden, and since it’s mainly been sunny, you’ve been quite happy. Maybe you’ve been able to get on with home decorating or home improvement. Home is a good place.

For others maybe life is boring or even hard at home. Perhaps your home is small, perhaps you don’t have much space. Perhaps you don’t get on well with the people in your home for whatever reason. Maybe this doesn’t feel like home, and you long to be in another home, perhaps far away. For some sadly home doesn’t feel like a happy place. It feels like a prison.

We all know what home should feel like. Phrases like “home is where the heart is” and “there’s no place like home” tell us what we want home to feel like. It’s been wonderful to hear about initiatives to combat homelessness at this time.

Well can I tell you today that there is someone who gives us a home. In the Bible in Psalm 90 the word home or dwelling place is used of God. He is the ultimate place of safety. In him is safety, even from sickness and death. In his Son, we find true safety and true security.

Don’t run from God at this time. Run to him. He is home. He provides true refuge. And Jesus says to his followers that in his Father’s house there are many rooms. Referring to the heavenly home that those who put their trust in Jesus can look forward to.

There is someone who gives us a home.

Think of the place that is the happiest home you have ever lived in. Perhaps it was many years ago. Perhaps you can picture the faces of your loved ones even though they may no longer be with us, as you returned home. Well that is what it is like coming back to God.

And that is what it will be like going home to heaven- the new world that Jesus has promised for those who love him.

There is someone who gives us a home.

When St Paul was speaking in Athens about Jesus, he said that God has determined the exact places where people should live, and he did this “so that people would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each of us”. Whether home is a happy place or a tough place now, there is someone who gives us a true home in Jesus Christ.

One of the best loved lines in a pop song is Peter Gabriel’s song Solsbury Hill, which finishes with the line, “Grab your things, I’m going to take you home”. During this time of lockdown, have you thought about how wonderful it would be to come home to God?