He came to bring the human race Home. – Tim Keller
Have you ever been homesick?
Cameron and I have lived for extended periods of time in three different countries: India, the USA and the Netherlands. For that reason, we have three places we consider home—and yet, in none of them do we feel truly, entirely at home.
Wherever we are, we’re always missing things about the other two places. It’s as if we’re always both home and homesick at the same time.
The Bible is filled with stories of people who are homesick. Some, like the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), choose to leave home. Others, like the Israelites in Babylon, were exiled (2 Kings 24:12-14). And then there were those forced to leave due to circumstances like Jacob (Genesis 27:42-44), Joseph (Genesis 37:26-28) and Moses (Exodus 2:15).
Exile is a recurring theme in the Bible because there is a strong spiritual meaning behind it.
In many ways, we’re all exiles – all prodigal sons and daughters longing for home.
Every human heart longs for a place that completely fits, where we can be or find our true selves – a desire to feel at home.
No matter how great the home was that you grew up in, it will never fully satisfy that feeling.
Why? Because we weren’t created to live in the broken world we now call home.
We were created to live in close relationship with God, like Adam and Eve who walked with Him in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8). That was our original home, the true country we were designed for.
But the first exile happened when sin entered humankind through Adam and Eve, and God had to banish them from the Garden (Genesis 3:23).
Thankfully, grace came through Jesus Christ, who came to undo the exile Adam and Eve had caused (Romans 5:12-15).
“Jesus had not come to simply deliver one nation from political oppression, but to save us all from sin, evil, and death itself. He came to bring the human race Home.” – Tim Keller
Would you like to come home, ?
