Where do you feel at home?
Is home a place? Is it a state of being? Is it both?
Sometimes we can live in the most comfortable house with all the amenities and feel homeless. Maybe because we don’t feel seen or known or loved. Maybe because our surroundings don’t feel like us.
Sometimes we can be where we are usually most at peace – on a trail, in the water, in the backyard, tucked in a sleeping bag under a starry night sky and we can feel homeless. Maybe because we don’t feel settled in our heart, maybe because we are in the midst of grief or transition.
This Sunday Jesus tells the disciples “where I am there you will be also.” The passage is designed to reassure; to help us remember that God is always with us. That when we feel like the rug is getting pulled out from underneath us, there is a home we can go to – we can find God in us, in others, and around us and we can eventually feel at home.
Jesus wants to help us understand that home is not a place but a relationship. A relationship with God.
I pray that in those moments when we feel homeless, we are able to take a moment, breathe deep, check in, and find God with us. God in our hearts, God in the stars that light the night, God in the words of a loved one, and God in the smile of a stranger.