“Home”
SCRIPTURE
A scribe then approached and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” —Matthew 8:19-22
DEVOTIONAL
If you are like me, going back to the place where you grew up comes with mixed emotions. You try to remember the past in what remains. But that old familiar neighborhood isn’t so familiar. The old pharmacy is now a Thai restaurant, the beloved gas station is now an abandoned flower shop, and the old theater is just a hollow shadow of the past. Houses are getting bigger (or lots are getting smaller) and those old neighbors are getting…younger. The deeper you go, the further you feel. Marriages around you break up and the children are now forced to commute, living part-time with each parent. Twice as many holidays, half the family. The steady presence of your own parents has become less steady as they grow less steady, and you find yourself parenting not only your children but now maybe even your own parents. While “you can’t go home again,” this Lenten season may tell us that the insecurity or restlessness that we may feel when we have to release the past is not a bad thing. It is a tug forward.
“A wandering Aramean was my father…” (Deut. 26:5). This was the way the Hebrew people described themselves each time they brought the first fruits of the harvest. It was a reminder that the land from which their bounty came was not their home. And as much as they may have wanted that lasting security in a place, they were a people who followed God and God was on the move. The places, the experiences, even the shelters that they built themselves along the way were just temporary stopping points on a much longer journey. They were places to catch their breath, to look up to the heavens for direction, and to tell stories about where they had been and where they hoped to end up one day.
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- How would you define “home?” Where is your “home?”
- How has that home changed? In what ways is it the same?
- Henry Nouwen argues that ‘home’ is in Christ.1 When do you experience that home?
“You can’t go home again.” —Thomas Wolf
PRAYER
Your sure provisions, gracious God, attend us all our days.
Oh, may your love be our abode, and all our work, your praise.
There we might find a settled rest, while others go and come,
no more a stranger nor a guest, but like a child at home.2
Amen.
1 Nouwen, Henri. Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety. (New York: Image, 2024), 20-23
2 Watts, Isaac. “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need.” The Presbyterian Hymnal, #172.
The daily devotionals for the season of Lent are written by Rev. Dr. Kirk Hall, Associate Pastor of Formation at First Presbyterian Church from 2010-2013. He is currently a founding partner at The Metis Project, LLC. and lives with his wife and two girls in Salisbury, Connecticut.