Longing for Home

Longing for Home

For many of us, a longing for home shows up strongly around the holidays. This sense of longing shows up as we gather with family and friends we haven’t seen, we share stories together, and eat familiar foods. Yet, for some of us is the reminder that our sense of home is missing. We long for a home we once had or a home we never had. What is it we are really longing for? 

A place of belonging, not just a place to fit in. 

A place where all seems right with the world rather than the realities of fragmentation, injustice, suffering, and pain. 

A place where no one is abandoned and everyone is loved, known, and is part of something good and greater than oneself. 

What is Home?

If longing for home is something every human heart carries, then what is home? Why do places feel like home to some and not to others? How do we define home?

Home is a place where we feel known and loved. It’s a place of belonging and safety  – where our earliest sense of self develops.  And, it’s a place of nostalgia for many of us.  Many of us long for the childlike version of ourselves that was more honest, freer, and more open and welcoming. Even if we never had this, we long for freedom, openness, joy, and welcome. We long for people with whom we belong. The holidays can be discouraging when it seems that everyone else has a welcoming place to be.

Home is also deeply tied to physical spaces. If a physical place doesn’t exist where we can show up, the holidays can be especially hard. The physicality of home also shows up in our connection to lands, houses, and neighborhoods. When these spaces are threatened or when natural disasters strike, we also lose our sense of place and home. Our sense of being rooted in land, place, and people is lost and we long for this established place and community. 

Embedded in our sense of home is being part of something greater than oneself. This is often found in the stories we remember and tell. As people, we come together to connect with and to one another along with our traditions and history of years before. Stories and memories are shared creating a sense of belonging to others. We long to be connected to things greater than ourselves and to be wanted in these places.

Our Felt Longing

A few things that can grow our longing for home can include:

• Loss: literally or figuratively. In the past year, many people in Los Angeles have lost their homes to fires. In Texas, over 100 people lost their lives. The ripples of these losses are exponential, and the longing to be together and at home with loved ones is painfully strong. 
• Conflict: Conflict often arises from unaligned values, with various sides fighting for justice, place, and good. Those who are displaced and in the midst of war might feel a stronger longing for home. Within our own families we have conflict and we long for households of peace.
• Ourselves: we ourselves get in our own way of being home. We have a hard time receiving the home offered by another. Pain and distrust have made their home in our hearts, minds, and bodies, and we cannot believe that there is a home for us somewhere. 

If our longing for home is part of every human being, then where do we look to fulfill this longing for home? What are the ways that God invites us home? And what might it look like? 

Our First Home

In the Christian creation story, human beings are created by a God who chooses to be relationally connected to humanity, provides for us a physical place to live, and gives us good work to be a part of. God provides our first home on earth, with one another, and with God. In this place of home we belong, we are connected to something greater than ourselves, and our lives and intertwined with the stories of others. And the Christian God welcomes us and is always inviting us home. 

Coming Home

Even as God creates a home for us, he also invites us home, and it is our choice to return home. Coming home is a two-way street. 

This two-way street is found throughout the Christian Scriptures. And it is such an encouragement to me because no matter where we are in our relationship with God, coming home is always an option. 

As I look at Scripture, I want to highlight four stories of ways home:

• Jesus pursues the lost sheep that has wandered and cannot find their way home on their own.
• God walks towards the first man and woman, who hide, having seen themselves in a new way and become afraid.
• The prodigal chooses to return home to his father, hoping for even the least of his father’s generosity.
• The elder son stays near home, but with performance and perfection, and far in heart because of anger and judgment.

What these stories provide for us are pictures of God seeing our longing for home. And when we find ourselves in any of these places, coming home is always possible. Our longing for home is met in God’s home for us. And God sees us and has made ways for us to come home. God will come looking. God will wait. We have a home in God. 

Reflection Practice

The reflection practice below invites you to see yourself in relationship to your home in God. As you reflect, resonate, you will also be invited to receive from God and consider how your return home might give another a sense of being loved, belonging, and part of a greater purpose.  

1. Spend some time reading these stories and reflecting on which one resonates with you. The Scripture references are provided for you. 
   • The lost sheep – cannot find their way (Luke 15:3-7)
   • The first man and woman – hiding and afraid (Genesis 3:8-10)
   • The younger son – confession and longing to be home (Luke 15:11-32)
   • The older brother – performance, anger, and/or judgment (Luke 15:11-32)
2. Which story and character do you most resonate with?
3. Where are you on that two-way street with God? Which way are you facing? Where is God? Imagine this two-way street.
4. What does coming home to God look like? Spend more time imagining this.
5. In what ways can you see God welcoming you home?
6. In prayer, ask God to help you be aware in the coming days and weeks of how this return home will bless or minister to another. This may be in your family life or friendships. Or it might be in your ministry context, role, or an event. Write this prayer down if you’d like.

For Further Reading:

Becoming a Person of Welcome: The Spiritual Practice of Hospitality, Laura Baghdassarian Murray, Inter Varsity Press, 2025 

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming by Henri Nouwen

Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine Pohl