Where Do You Live?

It is a common question we ask when we meet new people. Where do you live and what do you do? Our home is an extension of our personality, and we seem to find some identity for ourselves or for others by exchanging answers to this question.

But there is more to be found if we would just pause and think a moment. When we mention “home” do we not all remember childhood days playing on the sidewalks or even on the streets? Hopefully we remember the times with our family and the care and love extended to us. Perhaps we think of the trees and the hills and the streams that were so familiar and precious. We remember friends that played with us, or on occasion, fought with us in the yard. At least I do, and I hope you do as well. Our concept of home is shaped by all that has gone before us.

My home as a child seemed so large, yet I know now that it was relatively small. Is it because I am larger in size? I think not. It is because a child usually has no basis for comparison. His home is his castle, complete with marks on the walls, the smells and the creaking floors. Maybe I should say my home was my “hiding place”, for I could be what I wanted to be in that place. Or so it was with me.

As we become adults we may move on to newer or different homes. But in a way it is the same. They tend to become our new identity—but not entirely. For we always carry with us the traits that endure, the way of viewing life and things and people. Or so it is with me.

I remember a home with a coal furnace, without running hot water, and with peeling wallpaper. Yet it was home in the true sense. The newer one had drafty doors where the wind would howl on cold nights. I remember porches where it was good to take an afternoon nap in the shade. (I still like to do that, although I have found another place—the neighbors don’t see me now.)

Each home we possessed was a little nicer, at least in a way, but it seems we are never totally satisfied. We can expand to greater size but it is never perfect. Dealing with leaking faucets, carpet stains, broken windows, furnaces that quit at the most inopportune time, and slippery sidewalks is just a fixed part of our life. Oh some of those maladies go away when you move South to Florida, but they are replaced by an invasion of strange bugs, falling palm branches, and more lightning flashes around you. Yet it is home, and we love it. The beaches and the blue waters draw me to them. There are always new people to meet, many friends with whom to share, and the beauties of God’s creation—wherever you may be.

So, my friend, where do you live? Be patient with me a moment and I will talk about the neatest place to live. It is in a place, if you want to call it that, where no human being can go by his own efforts. Try as he or she may, there is no way to find it. But it is place that is free, just as a gift. It is a place that will never wear out, never need repair, never need to be paid for (at least by us), and it will last for eternity. And, most importantly, it will totally change your life. All that you have ever longed for in a home is there—and even more beyond your imagination. Unending love is freely given, along with purpose for your eternal life. You can’t beat that!

You ask, how can that be? Well, it can’t be if it were up to us alone. But you see we are not alone. Our God, the creator of it all, has provided a way of truth and life for each one of us. It is a free gift, if we would only reach out and take it.

God is calling you to this new home. Do you hear Him? He is evident in what has been made. He is evident within you if you would but listen. What is He saying—what is His message to you? My friend, the message is that God loves you and has given His only begotten Son so that you could have eternal life.

Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed. If you confess that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. And you will find that you are already in a new home—that home is in Christ. Oh, you say, I can not understand how I could be inside someone else, let along God or Christ. Yes, you are right, there is no way you could see it, except by faith in what God has said and done. So listen to what He has said:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  Ephesians 2:4-6.

So join me in my new home. There is always room for another—and another. It is without bounds-- it is beautiful beyond imagination. The Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple in the new city. The city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Of course I am not talking about a physical home. This new place is a spiritual home, just as God is spirit. But just as your earthly home can define your identity, so also does this new spiritual home—even more so. Do you think that your earthly life has it all together? Do you want to just ignore all of this and cling to what you yourself can build for your home and for your life? Do you think you can take it all with you? Do you think your earthly life will last for eternity? Please rethink all of this. Don’t go on trying to make repairs to your life, just accept the new spiritual home that God has prepared for you. You will love it as I do. It has a “vacancy” sign up now. Take it!

M. R. Seiler 4/12/04

Additional Reading
John 3:16-17
Romans 10:8-11
Revelation 21: 21-23

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