LONGING FOR HOME AT CHRISTMAS
Jerusalem had been overthrown by the Babylonians and its citizens had been taken captive. As they were force marched from Judea to Babylon, they were allowed to rest for a while by one of its rivers. Yet though their bodies were in Babylon, their hearts remained in Zion. And when their captors asked them to sing a song, they wept instead.
As the Christmas holidays approach, there are many whose hearts are not in it. Their bodies may be present, but their hearts cling to an earlier time when all their loved ones were still with them, or to an earlier place they always called home. But even when they return to that place, it’s not the same. Someone else lives in the house.
What is this longing for home that we feel at Christmas? Is it mere sentimentality? Always remembering the past as being better than the present? Or could it be something else? Could it be that there is within us a longing for something that lasts? A longing for an eternal home?
Solomon must have been feeling this when he wrote of this eternal longing inside all of us, saying, “He has put eternity in their hearts” (Eccl. 3:11). In other words, “God has placed a desire for an eternal home within every human heart.”
Maybe that’s why the Christmas holidays make us think of home more than any other season. For didn’t the Son of God leave His eternal home and become homeless, being born in a stable, so that we might find our eternal home in Him? He became one of us that we might become one with Him. He took our sin, our separation from God and our death, that we might receive His righteousness, His Sonship, and His eternal life.
The true meaning of Christmas is that this longing for home within us cannot be satisfied by trying to relive past memories, but only by looking to Jesus. Jesus is the home our hearts have always longed for.
PRAYER: Dear Father, we sometimes weep for past Christmas memories, but we are overcome with joy because we have found our true home in You. Jesus is our home. He is always with us, so we are never lonely. Our hearts were made for Him. Help us to share this joy with everyone. In Jesus’ name, amen.