Vacation.  We spend lots of time planning and lots of money taking vacations.  Yet there is a persistent snag that we hit.  The cabin in the woods is picturesque, but the lumpy bed, squeaky doors and pesky mosquitoes aren't the most comfortable environment.  We spend our time at home dreaming about being away, and we spend our time away dreaming of being at home.  What's that about?

It's not just about a comfortable pillow or a familiar chair.  "Home" is a deep-seated need in our souls that is too often unmet in the world we live in.  Larry Crabb put it this way in his book Inside Out.

Even since God expelled Adam and Eve from the garden, we have lived in an unnatural environment, a world in which we were not designed to live.  We were built to enjoy a garden without weeds, relationships without friction, fellowship without distance.  But something is wrong, and we know it, both within our world and within ourselves.  Deep inside we sense we're out of the nest, always ending the day in a motel room, never at home.

Always in a motel, never at home.  Wow!  If we're honest, all of us feel that way at one time or another.  And it has nothing to do with how luxurious our home might be or how nasty the motel is.  It's about our soul's longing for home, a home that has nothing to do with walls and carpets.  Gary Moon picked up on this image and wrote of his own journey of finding his way spiritually.  The evocative title of his book is Homesick for Eden.

Sometimes it takes the dramatic experience of vacation, of being away from "home", to wake us up to that deep desire to feel at home, at ease, content.  

In a fallen world, that's hard to find.  That's why Jesus came.  Not just to tell us about the place he's preparing for later, but to assure us we can be at home with him starting now.  This is what he said: "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." (John 14:23)

Enjoy your vacation, wherever it may take you.  Enjoy coming back home when it's over.  But never forget that your real home - the one your heart is homesick for - is with Jesus now and forever.  He wants you to discover the world you were made for, the world that is God's blessing for his children.

Blessings on the Journey!
Jim