Home is where...

How many homes have you had? Home defined as an address you've lived at for at least three months? 23 for me. 25 if I count our trailer and our van (they don't get their own address).
​Our faith ancestors had countless family homes, and as a people moved from homeland to homeland. Garden, ark, Canaan, Egypt, the wilderness, Canaan again, Babylon, exile into nearly all the lands of this earth.
How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? cry Judeans in exile, May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, Jerusalem. Psalm 137
Judeans in exile also hear God's call to make home, to find home, in that foreign land. Seek the peace of the city in which you dwell. Plant gardens, grow and harvest, grow your families, too.

Daniel's home flooded 15 months ago and he's been staying in a nearby town. A few of his cousins live on the same street and have been staying other places, too. One cousin moved back a couple weeks ago and as I cleaned trim to put back in Daniel's house, this cousin came over to chat.  When he told me "there's no place like home," it didn't sound cliche.

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What makes home?

• Comfort. We stayed at my cousin's house for a couple days, with homemade blueberry muffins and cornbread, gourmet cheese and jam, unlimited hot showers, premium comfort. Still, we came "home" when we returned to life in the van.
• Familiarity. Out of those 25 homes, I've spent (by far) the most nights at my parents' house. We stayed with them many days in January and even though we've all changed, that home is completely familiar. Still, we came "home" when we returned to life in the van.
• Purpose. A full day of cleaning trim gave me time to contemplate why the van feels most like home, despite its genuine annoyances. I've been putting my body, mind, heart and spirit into this van because we are called to a vagabond life of service.

​God is our purpose, the One in whom we live, and move and have our being. Acts 17:28
God has always been in all places, all around, within and among us.  Acts 17: 24 But our faith ancestors came to know this along their journey, from the Ark of the Covenant to the Temple to Torah, giving God the safest home they knew along the way.

And for Christians, Christ connects us to our true home in God in all places and spaces.
We make home, we find home, with each other, where two or three are gathered.
We make home, we find home, as the beauty of creation startles us awake to God with us, within us, around us, among us.

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Purpose: loveliness, usefulness restored, may this nearly-trashed trim be part of a home in which Daniel and his family find comfort, familiarity, purpose, and more. Home is where...