As I enter the last month of this incredible adventure, I can’t help but look to the future. However, being away for 11 months means changes. What will I be returning to? How do I create my newfound explanation of home back at the place I used to call home?
The Lord is so sovereign though. He began preparing my heart to return home before I even left! During this race, the Lord has given me a fascination for the word dwelling.
It’s a word that expresses intimacy and love. It creates this picture of safety and comfort. It’s the place we call ours. The place we call home.
It’s a powerful place where powerful things happen. Things that shape who we are and who we will become.
So naturally I worry about the home that I’ll be returning to. What if it’s not the same? What if I’m not the same? How can some place I used to call home, call safe, now be a place of uncertainty?
But then the Lord taught me something.
He calls us His dwelling. We are His safe place. We are the place He deems His home. Because He has made us His dwelling.
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Ephesians 2:19-22
Woof. If my God is willing to call my person His temple, how can I not be honored?
God has called us out of the wilderness, to be members of His household, joined together with Christ, to become a holy temple in which He has chosen to reside.
This truth has opened my eyes to the idea that I’m not going home. Because I am home. I’m always home, because my home is within me, where my Father resides. He is my constant in this constantly changing world. He is our safe place to dwell in an otherwise unsafe environment.
When we decide to let go of our worldly dwellings and embrace the holy temple within ourselves, we are to enter into the goodness the Lord has in store for each of us.
So I’m no longer going home. I returning to a familiar place with a renewed sense of confidence in my ability to create a holy dwelling for my Most High King.
So as we all step into new seasons of life together, I’ll leave you with a quote:
“It is with passion, courage of conviction and strong sense of self that we take our next steps into the world.”
