It is always a bit melancholy seeing your house in the listings. 41 Coneflower Dr, West Henrietta, NY 14586 | realtor.com® . We lived here 12 years. Really, we raised three babies there. Yes, the youngest two aren’t fully baked, and the oldest has already boomeranged, but that was home. And it was a really good one.
But when you think about homes you are really thinking about the people and the activities that were centered around that place. When you’ve moved you are in that liminal space living off hope. You have left behind something good that was completely known. You are looking for a new hub. You are meeting new people. You are living on the promise that God intends good for his people, hoping that you haven’t made a big mistake just because you felt an itch. Or because you felt a call to someplace new.
My story isn’t perfectly like that of Abraham setting out from Ur. He was leaving family. We are living with my parents for the time being. But every move should have the Christian reflecting upon Abraham. While we are now looking for our “permanent” home, none of our homes here are permanent. Every move is an intimation of our final move to the promised land. Every liminal time of living on hope is an image of the Christian life of seeing that promised land from a distance while being sojourners here. Every move is an act of faith, that God is the same God everywhere, and there is no other. And He keeps his promises.
The Apostle Paul says “he forgets what lies behind and strains forward to what lies ahead.” Although if you read the rest of Paul, I don’t think the man forgot anything. It’s a spiritual statement. If one holds onto things past too tightly, the warning is Lot’s wife, turned into that bitter pillar of salt. That does not mean that one can’t take the good things. Paul soon follows that statement with “only let us hold true to what we have attained.” You get to keep the good stuff. Your life is hidden with Christ. Things that are built here alone are all destined for the fire. But the good stuff is treasure in heaven. The good stuff is what has formed our souls on our journey.