When Home is More Than a Place

Let’s talk about Adventure…

I married a man who thrives on adventure. He spent a period of time living out of his car (solar panel and all) so that he was unencumbered and could travel all over the west. He settled down long enough to build a small cabin in the unpopulated mountains of Nevada, only to leave and see more of the country. I, on the other hand, lived most of my life in the same city in which I was born until I married him. Granted, I’d take the occasion road trip and intermittently dream about living in Europe, but ultimately I longed to come home.

We’re alike in that we’re both planners. He plans out his camping trips with the help of a spreadsheet (shout to to accountants everywhere!) and he never takes a risk he’s not prepared for. And I have to be a planner – I’m a teacher, for goodness sake. I hear people say things like “If you had told me 5 years ago that my life would have looked like this, I never would have believed you.” WHAT! I’ve got every day for the next 5 years planned out. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but I certainly am not one to plunge into the unknown and make huge life changes on a whim. “Spontaneous” in not a word in my vocabulary.

I think a lot about what Home means. Since I’ve gotten married, home has been an evening on the couch with my husband. It’s been the meticulously organized shelves that I keep my books and hobbies on. It’s been a town where all the streets are familiar and I know where everything is with my eyes closed. It’s been a gym I like and a schedule I can manage (you can see where my priorities lie). And It’s been a place where I keep my memories.

A beautiful view right down the road doesn’t hurt, either.

So when God first started planting the seeds for us to move back out west, I hoped those seeds would rot in the figurative ground. I have created the home I love here and I’m perfectly happy with my job, thank you very much. Starting over leaves so many unknowns and when I like the knowns I have, I don’t want to give them up. This stepping out in faith thing is hard. The darkness at the end of the path is frightening and I don’t trust myself to handle it.

But God is good and he has brought me to a place of peace and certainty that this is the next step we need to take. So I press on, knowing that there may be darkness for a time, but that He is faithful and will supply my needs. I like to think that some new grand adventure awaits and that this fresh start will not carry with it any hurts or heartaches.

But maybe it won’t make me happier or make my life better. Maybe the only purpose for the struggle is for His glory to be revealed in weakness and for my own sanctification. Maybe I’ll be stripped bear of any comfort I ever had. And that’s really scary to think about. But Home will never exist as we truly want it to on this side of eternity. It is as though we will remain wanderers in this life always longing for the next comfort, the next thing to bring us happiness. But take heart. There is a home far better than we can imagine waiting for us on the other side of eternity. It is a home where all sadness and hunger and hurt will disappear and all longings will be satisfied. Where sin will be no more and we will see our maker face to face.

I will still mourn the loss of the place I love, but there’s a stirring in me know knows that even the best place on this earth is nothing compared to the glories that await me in eternity.

Take a listen to this beautiful reminder of God’s goodness which, more times than not, doesn’t meet our definition of good, but is always far better. I also love their song Highway which speaks so perfectly to finding our home in Heaven.

 

Highway – As Isaac

Oh Lord, plant me like a tree within Your house
There’s an aching deep within my bones,
Your presence is the treasure of my soul
It’s where my heart is found, where my heart is found .

Let my heart be a highway to Zion
Running narrow and true,
Set my sails on the sea of surrender,
I am not my own, Not my own
You are my Home

Oh Lord, I have seen the goodness of Your land,
It ruins me for any lesser thing
All Your strength and glory light the way
Until I reach my home, until You bring me home
Single-minded, whole-hearted, set my face like a stone
Letting go of what’s behind me,
I am headed for my home.

Written by Zachary Tate Smith

You can get a print of the path into the woods painting at  Birds and Berry Studio

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