longing for home

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." - C.S. Lewis

Etched deep within the heart of every person is a longing for home.

Fernweh could most simply be described as "the feeling of being homesick for abroad". Glancing across the large world map laid out in front of me, I know I've felt that many times. I wish I were here, I wish I were there - I think you get the idea. Right now, with my family, I feel at home - and yet I also use that word to describe a place that is thousands of miles away, beyond the borders of the States, and into the country of South Africa. And I know how easy it would be for other locations throughout my lifetime to become "home" as well. The problem is, I can only be one place at a time. And so starts the vicious cycle of "I wish I were here" or "I wish I were there". I could travel the entire globe, and yet never find a place that fully satisfies that desire.

I'm realizing just how true it is that we were not made for this world. It never can, and was never meant to, fully satisfy my longing for home. Traveling new places and meeting new people can most certainly be life changing, but chasing after a place on this earth that completely fulfills that desire is like chasing after the wind. No such place exists in this life. And yet God is teaching me to be content right where I am. My satisfaction shouldn't be in my location, but in the One who has saved me and given purpose to this life. This is home...for now. And if He leads me somewhere new, that will be home too. I have to remind myself that no place on earth is meant to quench that longing.

And you know what? I'm sure that longing will always be there in this life, simply as a daily reminder that I'm just passing through this earth - like a traveler on a journey. My heavenly home awaits.