Home

As I sit at the airport in Romania and wait to board a plane to America, I find myself thinking a lot about the word home.  I'm going home! But I'm also leaving my home.

So what is home?

1. A safe place to be yourself.

Home is the place where you don't have to pretend. You are free to be happy, sad, frustrated, confused or sometimes just silly.

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." - Maya Angelou

2. A place where something flourishes.

I love this Oxford Dictionary definition. Home is a place where you grow and change. A place where you are encouraged to be your best self. A place where you flourish into something beautiful.

3. A place filled with memories.

Home is a place where time is invested and personal memories are made. I can love my visiting my sister,  or love the mountains but those places are not my home because I have never invested serious time there.

4. A place shared with loved ones.

This is the most important element of a true home. It is loved ones who make you feel safe, accept you for who you are and help you to flourish. It is with people that memories are made. It is the people our hearts are drawn to, and without people and without love a place ceases to be a home.

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As I reflect on these definitions I am grateful for the homes God has given me over the years. Some were home only for a season while others remain. But having so many homes also leaves me feeling that I am never completely at home. Romania is home but it is not my culture which leaves me longing. Iowa is home but it is not my calling which also leaves me longing.

The reality is our earthly "home" will never be as complete as we want it to be. Things change, people move, our hearts are torn between different places. But God didn't design us for an earthly home. We were designed to make our home in God's kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. Only there, only in Him can we be completely safe, completely ourselves. Only in Him can we flourish to our full potential. The best memories we can make are by following Him and His plan because He loves us more than anyone else.