While growing up, we spent almost every vacation going home to Tennessee where both sides of our extended family lived. “Going home” was the phrase I remembered hearing a lot. Sometime, around age 10, we had to visit the big city of Nashville, Tennessee as my grandfather was in the hospital. We were taking a break and visited a local park. It was while visiting this park that I told myself I would move here one day and live in Nashville. I wanted a home. A place I could say, “I’m from ….”. I just felt lost at times not being able to tell people where I was from.

We never lived close to our extended family while growing up. My dad is a pastor and we moved about every three years until my last two weeks of seventh grade when we moved to Indiana. I stayed in Indiana until college and getting married. It became my home. There were times of conflict when Indiana became more my home and Tennessee was simply more of my heritage. I felt I had two homes: Indiana and Tennessee.

I have been living in Nashville now since college. I was at a gas station one day and a gentleman asked if anyone was from around here. I said, “I’ve been living here for a bit so maybe I can help.” I gave him the directions and he made his way out. The lady at the counter said, “Wow, you knew your stuff. How long have you been living here?” That’s the moment it hit me I had lived here over 15 years at that time.  I would say 15 years is longer than “a bit” and it was definitely longer than I had lived in Indiana. I had been living here without thinking of Tennessee as my home. I had forgotten it was my new home because it had become familiar, day-to-day, and normal.

Sometimes I have this same forgetfulness in my spiritual journey. Someone will ask about my home and I say, “Oh, I’ve been a Christian for a bit so maybe I can help.” All the while, I forget how long I’ve been on this journey with God. I forget from where I’m from and treat it as familiar, day-to-day, and normal. I forget my heritage.

There are times, too, when I feel I’m all alone and I live far away from my extended family. God has provided me with extended family wherever there is another Christ-follower. I can continue to think “I’ve lived here for a bit” or I can acknowledge this place as my home and these people as my family. I understand we have a home in heaven waiting on us. This earth, though, was God’s original place He created for us and it included the Garden of Eden. If this was the home God created for us, why would we not treat it as such?

Here’s our challenge for this week: Look around your daily walk. Are you acting as though you have the heritage of Abraham, Jacob, David, and Jesus? Are you ignoring this world looking forward to what’s to come in heaven? Let’s help make this world a bit of “heaven on earth”. If you don’t, who will?

© 2016 Susan M. Sims

Image courtesy of lekkyjustdoit at freedigitalphotos.net

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