At the end of each day during our six-week vision trip in Thailand, we always look forward to going ‘home’ to retreat and rest after a day of visiting different places and meeting missionaries and friends. But the fact was, we were travelling across eight provinces and staying in eleven different accommodations. The reality of living out of our suitcases set in for us. We were feeling tired from packing and unpacking at each place where we arrived. Yet, we looked forward to resting at the place where we had arranged for that night. So where was ‘home’ for us?
Is ‘home’ our four-room HDB flat in Singapore? After six weeks of travelling, it certainly felt very nice to be back in our familiar and cosy little flat where all that we need is within reach! But we are also slowly clearing out our things to prepare for our move to Thailand next July/August.
Or is ‘home’ our church community? Maybe ‘home’ is where our hearts and loved ones are? This is a common rhetoric we hear in today’s world.
In the Bible, we read that Abraham left his homeland of Ur of the Chaldeans, settled in Haran and eventually headed towards Canaan (Genesis 11:31 and 12:4-5). By faith he left what he was familiar with, and went to the land of promise, looking forward to the city that had foundations, whose designer and builder is God (Hebrews 11:9-10).
Paul the Apostle took long and treacherous journeys, travelled from place to place, house to house, for the sake of the gospel.
We are reminded during this Christmas season that Jesus himself was born not in a beautiful home, but in a lowly manger in Bethlehem. After his birth, Jesus and his parents became refugees and fled to Egypt to avoid capture by King Herod. Jesus himself also recognised that “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to place his head.” (Matthew 8:20). Jesus knew that he had to leave his earthly home for his heavenly home in time to come.
Indeed, like C.S. Lewis shared in his book, Mere Christianity, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
After six weeks away from Singapore, the both of us came to the deeper realisation that this earth is but a temporal home. While we are living this life, we are to have an eternal perspective and look forward to our home in heaven where we can spend eternity in God’s presence. That is where our true home is.
So, where is home for you this Christmas?
Jon and Phoebe's thetomyumkongs journey. 