Belonging and Mental HealthSample

Finding Home

A number of years ago, our family moved halfway across Canada. We were under the illusion that being in the same country, we would settle into our new city very quickly. However, a few years in, we still didn’t feel completely at home. We didn’t have the same sense of history and connection in our new city. We couldn’t go on autopilot while driving and often got lost if we weren’t using GPS. We couldn’t just call up our parents or siblings to arrange weekend dinners. When we’d go back to visit our old city, we’d say, “We’re going back home for a visit.” And when we’d return to our new city, we’d be hit with homesickness again.

What do we mean when we say we feel “at home?” Does it mean we are comfortable and at ease? Is it when things move from foreign to familiar? In my experience, feeling at home is more than simply knowing where we are; it’s about being known in the places we find ourselves, whether in a geographical location or a mental or emotional state. We long to be seen, known, and loved in both our languishing and flourishing. Our new city began to feel like home the summer we returned after our “visit back home,” and people at church were glad to see us. Our absence was felt. We belonged to a group of people whom Scripture tells us are our brothers and sisters in Christ—fellow sons and daughters of our Father in heaven.

For someone experiencing the disorientation, grief, loneliness, and anxiety associated with relocating, it feels trite to simply say, “Home is found in Jesus.” We know that Jesus both dwells within us and is our dwelling place. But, the tangible experience of Jesus, our home, is found in his family, the Church. When we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory, finding brothers and sisters in Christ who see, know and love us changes our new locale into our new home.

Reflection Questions: Is my church the kind of place where the newcomer can find home? How does knowing that we are all brothers and sisters change the way we “find our home in Jesus?”

Prayer: Our Father, thank you that we find our home in you through your son Jesus Christ. Help us to be a community where people “feel at home”: seen, known, and loved. Amen.

(Written by Milissa Ewing.)