Like dry ground that thirsts for rain, people were created for an intense longing for life. Deep in the heart of every person is a hunger to love and be loved… a hunger to know they belong… a hunger to know that their life has meaning and purpose, to know that they’re not just aimlessly turning the calendar pages one day after another, but that they’re called to live for something much larger than themselves… a hunger to know that they’re invited to experience infinite beauty, perfect peace, and unending faithfulness… a hunger to know that they can live in the safety of a strong embrace, an embrace that will never end. People are hungry for home.
That hunger is in you. And from the beginning of time, God’s desire has been that you would find your home in Him, to know that your security, your value, and your hope come from only one source- understanding and walking in the simple truth that you are deeply loved by God.
When you really understand this and embrace His love, He takes the most hopeless of people and fills them with hope. He takes lives that were shattered and makes them whole. He takes those whom society had thrown away as useless, and He makes them His most faithful sons and daughters.
We live in exile.
Exile is this feeling of alienation and longing for something more, no matter where you live. It’s the human condition.
Everything in life has its consequence. And you see that. You know that one decision will lead to another. When we live for ourself, We live in a pattern of human corruption that leads to a “Babylon” that we all can’t escape. It’s this place where we think or feel we have everything we have ever wanted. Yet it’s still not perfect.
It doesn’t matter where you live, we are all longing for a better home. Even I, doing what I love, traveling the world, seeing new cultures and experiencing new things, know that this is nothing without a purpose.
But purpose you say. What is that?
You see, Jesus claimed that we all have lost our way; that our self centeredness has driven us to create false homes based on status and power. And these inevitably exclude others. We live in an exile of our own making.
Israel’s scripture held out hope, that one day God would send a king who would rescue us from all of the Babylon’s we’ve created. After many generations pass we meet this Jesus of Nazareth. He wandered about, with no home, announcing the great restoration, that reality of home that is real and all of humanity has been looking for. Jesus really cared about people who didn’t have homes. He welcomed in the stranger. He said Gods love is shown when you invite in the outcast, and throw parties for people who don’t have a place to belong. But Jesus said the true way home is one of weakness, one of service, and one of forgiveness.
Jesus went into exile along side us, to show us the true way home. Jesus said He is the way. His life and self giving love proved more powerful than humanity’s failure. He opened up a pathway to our real home. As Jesus’s followers committed themselves to Him, they discovered a new way of being human, and believed that the real return from exile had begun. So they would call themselves sojourners or wanderers, and say things like this world is not my home, we’re citizens of heaven. So Jesus’s followers remain exiles as they wait for the day when Jesus returns to transform this world into a true home. The home we always longed for.
So please, just hold on just a little while longer, you’re not too far gone, there’s still hope.
