“Oh, that was a great idea, to bring a water bottle,” said the girl standing next to me as I was filling it at the drinking fountain. With a crowd of 25,000 people, there was always a line and this friendly gal used the opportunity to strike up a conversation. She was the only stranger that initiated an exchange during my time in Kansas City. “What’s your name?” she asked, then told me her name was Nikki. She asked where I was from, and I told her, then she went on to describe how she’s really “from” one city in Virginia but goes to school in another. “Isn’t it funny,” she remarked, “that we’re all from different places but we all have the same home?” I finished filling my bottle and we parted ways.
Ever since my parents moved from Fergus in 2006, I wasn’t sure where to consider “home.” I’ve generally identified it with where my parents live. Wherever they live has the feeling of security and rest that “home” is meant to be. Yet most of my time is spent in Fergus – the community where I’ve lived my whole life. It’s definitely a secure environment. Is that home?
At the conference, I had two worlds collide. I got to introduce two of my SIL friends to some of my Life Church friends. It was a brief interaction, but a wonderful blessing. When one of my Fergus friends asked my SIL friend Doug where he was from, it was a complicated question to answer. I asked him, “Where do you consider ‘home’?” and he simply replied, “Wherever I’m sleeping tonight.”
I read the other day that people who are immersed in two cultures generally miss aspects of the culture that they’re far from. (I’m sorry I can’t give a reference for this; I’m at “home” and the book is at… my other home.) It said something like, “These people are the happiest when they are traveling between the two countries.”
Even with my limited experience, I can relate to this. There is something wonderful about having more than one “home” here on earth – because it is a reflection that we are simply not home yet. 1 Peter 2:11 says that we are “temporary residents and foreigners” in this world. God has placed in us a longing for our true home.
Life is very short. Eternity is forever. Our home with Him is an eternal one. We must remember to live our daily lives with that in mind. Earth isn’t our home. Let’s live like it!