Home Is Wherever God Puts You - iBelieve Truth - November 3, 2023
Exodus 12:1 (CSB)
Go from your land,
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
As a little girl, I pictured getting married and one day raising a family in the same town where I grew up. Everything and everyone I loved was right there in that zip code. However, soon after marrying my high school sweetheart, I discovered that God had different plans for us.
Packing and unpacking boxes quickly became our newlywed tradition as we learned the military lifestyle. Rather than sharing Sunday lunches and holidays with our kin, we often found ourselves mailing letters, packing suitcases, and cradling phones to say hello. While the adventure held excitement, my heart remained homesick.
I just wanted to go back, yet the army seemed to keep taking us further and further away from home. These living arrangements felt unfair and unlike what I had pictured for my future. Then, during a Sunday sermon while stationed overseas, the pastor of our tiny American church reminded us that home is wherever God puts you. What encouraging words for his displaced military congregation—including me!
I scribbled those words in my journal and let them marinate. Perhaps leaving home didn't mean putting all of our blessings on hold. Maybe the goodness of God was right here, too.
The Bible is full of men and women whom God uprooted and sent to new lands. For example, in Exodus 12:1, Abram (whom God later renamed Abraham) was instructed to "Go from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you." The words God spoke to Abram comfort anyone who has ever had to pick up and leave familiar surroundings behind. Amidst the uncertainty of transitions, we can find peace and joy, knowing that the Lord promises to show us where to go.
We can trust God for directions.
We can trust God for details.
We can trust God for delight.
Forty years later, I look back on my early adult years with fond memories. Moving was challenging, but each home brought new friendships, fun regional foods & traditions to experience, and beautiful variety in landscape and weather. Most importantly, we discovered that each community held a ripe mission field where we could share the Gospel and the hope of Jesus Christ. God's Kingdom work is always deeper and wider than we can comprehend.
Jesus was and always will be the bigger picture for our world. As God promised Abram in Exodus 12:2, "I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing." God’s plan was greater than Abram could see.
Leaving home required obedience, trust, and faith. Exodus 12:4-5a captures the magnitude of his response: "So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan."
God said go, so Abram went. May the same be said for you and me today.
Father God, help me to trust your plan for my life. Help me recognize when my heart gets stuck and open my eyes to your divine assignments. I want to make you known and enjoy the blessings you have in store for me. Give me an obedient heart like Abraham when you send me to new lands—whether that is a new city, neighborhood, or even just a new office! Calm my fears of the unknown. Wrap me in your peace today, and fill me with your courage to try new things and meet new people. Remind me often that home is wherever you put me. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Photo Content: ©Unsplash/Emma Simpson
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