Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. John 14:11 (NLT)
Always Home – The Home Series – Part 5
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
Pliny the Elder stated that “home is where the heart is.” Being a Naval and Army commander for the Roman Empire in the First Century, perhaps he took “home” with him during his many exploits and endeavours. Carrying it in his heart, or even being it within himself and his companions.
Jesus told his disciples that he was preparing a place for them and that they already knew the way to that place. They replied with, “What the heck are you talking about?” (those words exactly *wink*). He answered, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. No one comes next to the Father except through union with me. To know me is to know my Father too. And from now on you will realize that you have seen him and experienced him.” (John 14:6-7 TPT).
(SIDE NOTE: Jesus implies here that they had already encountered the father even though they were unaware of it, or unable to name it and articulate it. It begs the question, who else can this happen to? Maybe you can see and hear and touch and feel the face of God on a level that cannot be named because there are no words for it? We would do well to leave our judgements of how and when people connect with God behind…)
Jesus went on to say, “Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me.”
Home.
Frederick Buechner wrote,
“I have it in me at my best to be a saint to other people, and by saint I mean life-giver, someone who is able to bear to others something of the Holy Spirit, whom the creeds describe as the Lord and Giver of Life. Sometimes, by the grace of God, I have it in me to be Christ to other people. And so, of course, have we all-the life-giving, life-saving, and healing power to be saints, to be Christs, maybe at rare moments even to ourselves.
I believe that it is when that power is alive in me and through me that I come closest to being truly home, come closest to finding or being found by that holiness that I may have glimpsed in the charity and justice and order and peace of other homes I have known, but that in its fullness was always missing. I cannot claim that I have found the home I long for every day of my life, not by a long shot, but I believe that in my heart I have found, and have maybe always known, the way that leads to it. I believe that Buttrick was right and that the home we long for and belong to is finally where Christ is. I believe that home is Christ's kingdom, which exists both within us and among us as we wend our prodigal ways through the world in search of it.“
Is home a place, a person, a building, a feeling, within me, outside of me?
YES.
Paul wrote of the Divine that he is in all the things, and through all things (Col 1:16-17), John mentioned it too (John 1). We brush up against the Divine all the time, running into him in chance meetings and serendipitous encounters. Home is all around us and deep down within us. Martin Sheen said in a recent interview on the ‘OnBeing” podcast, “The genius of God is that he dwells where we would least likely look, within the depths of our own being, our own shallowness, our own darkness, our own humanity.”
There is in innate longing for home within all of us. Even though we have homes and families, there is always the sense of the need to “return home.” To the place Jesus was talking about when he said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”
Perhaps we are always at home, and endlessly journeying there at the same time. The challenge is to make our home in both the ‘now' and the ‘journey.'
Over to you. What's home like for you? Leave us a comment below.
Go to Part 6 – Homes and Dysfunction »
[vcex_image_grid columns=”3″ pagination=”false” thumbnail_link=”custom_link” link_title_tag=”true” custom_links_target=”_blank” overlay_style=”title-category-visible” columns_gap=”5″ img_hover_style=”fade-out” image_ids=”20934,20935,20937″ custom_links=”https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1239768002?pt=118656308&ct=blog%20footer&mt=8,https://www.pktfuel.com/dailyemail,https://www.pktfuel.com/support” img_height=”350″]