Wanting Home

“Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
Luke 2:49


Do you ever long for home? Maybe when you’re at work, or out running errands, you just stop and think, “I wish I could be home.” I know I do. Some days I just want to be at home. Some days I want to go home, as in to heaven. That is not to say that I am depressed or suicidal. I just want to be with my Dad. I want to go where things make better sense. I want to truly see the face of my Father and of my brother, Jesus. Sometimes when I hear of a person dying I envy them a bit. Their journey is over and they are right where I want to be, home.
In our class we have a student who says some pretty kooky things. Every now and then he’ll tell me, “Boysen, I’m going to take you to heaven and then I’m going to bring you back.” I always reply, “Little man, once I get to heaven I am not coming back!” Can you imagine it? You’ve had heaven, lived there, loved and been loved there, walked the streets, met the inhabitants and oh wait, back you go. If I did have to come back, I promise you it would be done with massive amounts of kicking and screaming! Jesus gave all of that up to come and save us. He didn’t come into a nice cushy lifestyle either. He came to a stable, cold, poor and hunted. Wow, lousy trade!

We focus on the crucifixion as Jesus’ great sacrifice for us. The truth is his entire existence on earth was an enormous sacrifice. In the passage from Luke Jesus has gone missing from his family’s caravan. When his parents find him and ask what he’s doing he responds with the above verse. Didn’t they know he had to be in his Father’s house? No, they didn’t. They didn’t understand the longing of his soul for the perfect home he’d left behind. They didn’t understand the depth of his need for his Father. I don’t either because I haven’t been to heaven but I do know the watered down, human nature variety of that longing and it is pretty strong. Have you experienced that longing? Do you know the feeling of just wanting to get closer to God?

When we read the passage from Luke 2:41-52 we focus on Mary’s feelings. We look at the idea that this twelve year-old Jesus seems wise beyond his years and yet wandered off. We need to look at his longing. He “had” to be in his Father’s house. That is the kind of devotion to God that I want to have. I want to be so lonely for my Abba that I just want to sit in the house we’ve built for him here while I wait to go to the house he’s built for me there.
I don’t want to be so heavenly bound that I’m no earthly good. Certainly Jesus wasn’t. He knew he would go home eventually but he also knew his purpose here. Still sometimes he just wanted to be with his Abba. This passage is often used to illustrate Jesus’ understanding of who he was. I think it shows just as well, a boy longing for his home.

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