Already Home
I almost jumped out of my chair when I typed our address into Google Maps and there we were, finally. The satellite image of a vacant lot had been replaced with the image of a house with sidewalks and trees and the beginning of landscaping. On the driveway you could even see the truckload of decomposed granite that was sitting there while we put down flagstone.
When I saw that image I felt like we finally had arrived. No matter that family and friends had visited us, or that we had already received five months of utility bills and our tax assessments. In the Google age, you don’t quite feel like you belong until the “eye in the sky” documents your presence.
As I looked at the image, I also fantasized that this is a God’s-eye view of us based on the ancient belief that God is “up there somewhere” in the cosmos; like in the song from a few years back, “God is watching us . . . from a distance.”
Honestly, it often can feel that way when the storms of life are howling – whether through the chaos and destruction of a hurricane, or the cold winds of heartache that come when we watch helplessly as someone we love is taken away by illness. In those times it seems that while God may be looking down on our house, there’s no interest or care about what is happening beneath our roof.
The truth is that God is not way up there somewhere, looking down on us. He’s not just under our roof, he’s under our skin. He’s in our heart, and from there he sees us and knows us from the inside out. He’s there when we’re awake and when we sleep, when we succeed and when we fail, when we are joyous and when we are overwhelmed with sorrow.
We know this through his son, Jesus, who in the Gospel of John described God’s presence in the context of “home”:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
Jesus wasn’t just talking about the future; he was talking about now. Through the Holy Spirit, God already resides with us. We don’t have to wait for him to take us home; his home is within us.