Home Is Where…

On the aver­age, one third of Amer­i­cans will move to another res­i­dence this year. The sum­mer months are the mov­ing months for most. This sta­tis­tic takes into account col­lege stu­dents that may change apart­ments sev­eral times in one year. It is more obvi­ous in cities than in the coun­try. Many peo­ple change houses or apart­ments almost annu­ally — just because they love the change. Some peo­ple move for a liv­ing. They “flip” houses in hot hous­ing mar­kets and do quite well for them­selves.
If you are the sort of per­son that hates to move, you may won­der how oth­ers do it with such ease. Mov­ing has its has­sles: dri­vers license changes, util­ity billing, the expense of haul­ing your belong­ings from point A to point B, etc. How­ever, for those doing this reg­u­larly, there is trick to han­dling the emo­tional stress. You see, home is where you tell your sto­ries. “Home” is very move­able. It resides in your head, and is not attached to the street num­ber on the abode you left. Yes, home is where the heart is. The heart is where you pon­der the sto­ries of your life.
Even though I do not fly all that much, I am at home on an air­plane. I am at home in rest stops along the Inter­states. Every gas stop is home. The bag of chips and a drink before I get get back on the road trig­gers the sense of home as much as my own back yard. Each stop is a lesser story in the big story that com­prises life. All a per­son has to do to feel at home is to begin a sen­tence with, “I remem­ber when…” and before you know it, you feel at home.
The only thing you can truly take with you through life is your sto­ries. The rest can be lost, or sold, or stolen. Your sto­ries are yours alone. Jesus said he had no place to lay his head. He lived on the road often in his min­istry, but the sto­ries of his adven­tures with peo­ple made him at home with every­one and in every place. Sal­va­tion is when God comes to make his home with us — wher­ever we are.