Searching for Home


For many Thanksgiving Weekend is a time to travel back home.  Whether flying or driving, Americans are on the move this weekend.  It's been a long time since my family traveled "home." In fact, I've not been to "my home" for Thanksgiving since perhaps my college days. Part of the reason is vocational.  The other piece is that we live far away from our "hometowns" and our families.  So, we make new traditions -- a visit to Golden Corral and a movie!  It works for us.  But the focus of the weekend (if we discount shopping and football) connects with a point made by Diana Butler Bass in her book Grounded.

She writes of what she calls the overarching narrative of the Bible.

The overarching narrative of the Bible is that of humanity searching for home. In the beginning, God created the beautiful earth as our home, but we carelessly misused it, resulting in exile from our natal place. The rest of the story recounts how we either faithfully sought God's homeland or sinfully abused it, with consequences of blessing or curses. Throughout, a spiritual interplay emerges: not only did God create our earthly home, but God is our home.   [Grounded, (HarperOne, 2015), p. 169]
Although Diana doesn't reference Augustine in her book, nor the statement, her summation correlates with a well known statement of St. Augustine's Confessions:

Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.
Our hearts are restless, for we are on a journey toward God. And, as Diana shows, home and family takes on many different forms, not all of which are blood related.  But home is the habitation of God. So wherever we are and with whom we are with at that moment.  Thanks be to God! 

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