Colorado was my home since birth, but in 2007 I moved to Uruguay with my husband, son and daughter. We sold and gave away most of our belongings, including a hamster and two goldfish and arrived in Montevideo lugging three trunks apiece. Suddenly, everything was unfamiliar except for the chosen items we brought with us. We began the adjustments to a new culture and slowly adapted, but even so, it didn’t feel like home.
Returning to the States for visits was enjoyable. We typically stayed with family and friends, as there wasn’t a spot to call home anymore. One place that felt the most like home was my parents house where my sisters and I had grown up. Staying there was comforting. Memorable wallpapers, window seats and loving faces helped settle the disconnected places inside me.
When my mom and dad died within months of each other, the loss of them and their familiar abode of 58 years brought increased feelings of homelessness. There was a growing hunger in my heart to have a safe, unchanging place of rest where I felt known, loved, and accepted.
One day as I was reading my Bible, John 14:20 jumped off the page. It was a verse I had read several times, but that day it became life to my homeless soul. Jesus was talking to the disciples and told them He wouldn’t leave them as orphans, but would come to them and then He says, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
As I pondered the verse, it somehow became real to me. I don’t know how exactly, all I know is that I felt embraced and secure in the reality of the truth that I am in Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit He is in me, and all of us are lovingly enveloped by Abba Father.
Joy started rising as I recognized that I am His home, and He is mine! It doesn’t matter what continent I am on, nor what language I am speaking, nor if I am known or unknown by others around me. The mind blowing reality is I am known, received and accepted in the loving community of the Trinity.
Soon this reality started popping out to me in other places in scripture. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” 1 John 4:15
“I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”John 17:20,21
Paul said in Acts 17:28, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” This place is available to those who have said a simple yes to Him—where He comes in and abides in us and we abide in Him. It’s a place of nurture and comfort where we can relax in His love. There is no striving to enter this place, nor to remain.
At last I have found my Home Sweet Home, and I’m growing more fond of this dear dwelling as each year passes.
Cathy Stallings
San José, Uruguay