“New York’s not my home!”
Jim Croce never had a more adorable or enthusiastic trio sing along with him.
Bumping along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in our odd looking Pacer, my three kids (ages 3, 5, and 7) sang at the top of their lungs, drowning out the well-worn 8 track tape blaring from the dashboard.
“Though all the streets are crowded
There’s something strange about it
lived there ‘bout a year and I never once felt at home…
That’s the reason that I’ve gotta get outta here
I’m so alone
Don’t you know that I gotta get outta here
‘Cause New York’s not my home.”
My exact sentiments. We all knew the words. We were heading back to New Jersey.
We were going HOME.
Kenny had taken a job in the city, a production manager at a busy publishing house. Always ready for adventure, we had moved our little family to Long Island. We lasted a year and a half. We had found a good church, made some very good friends, enjoyed our diverse neighborhood, adapted to the busy lifestyle…but it just wasn’t home.
Especially at Christmas. I slipped another tape in the tape deck and cranked up the volume. The kids giggled with pleasure and followed along with Bing Crosby as we crossed the Verazano Bridge and sped toward the NJ Turnpike.
“I’ll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents by the tree.”
Like us, everybody’s favorite destination at Christmastime is home. No matter how far we have to travel nor how difficult the traffic or annoying the delays, we long to be with the ones with whom we experience the warmth of acceptance and the pleasure of belonging.
This profound longing for home resonates deeply in the human heart. It echoes our need to connect not only with family and friends, but with something…more.
“The human heart hungers for an ultimate home, to rest in loving communion with God. Then and only then are we finally home, our hearts at rest and peace, filled with the joy that comes when we are known, the immense love of God holding and filling us within.” (D. Miller)
And not just at Christmas.
Augustine of Hippo said it this way, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” Until it is home.
But we have a big problem, don’t we? We live most of our lives feeling far removed from this home that we long for. We are, in effect, exiles on a journey to our ultimate home. But we grow impatient and forgetful and foolish. We find ourselves trying to attain our acceptance, satisfaction and our sense of belonging in this world with its allure and charms. But this world is just not our home. We are strangers here. The creation simply cannot fill the hole in us that was designed to be filled by God the Creator alone.
We are like the young man in a parable Jesus told. He left his father’s home heading off to a distant country where he thought life would be grand. Wine, women, and pleasure looked more attractive than slaving in his father’s fields. But one day the prodigal son came to his senses. He returned home to discover the beautiful grace and welcome of his forgiving Father. Prodigal means lavish, and what that selfish boy and we discover is that the love of the Heavenly Father is more prodigal—more lavish—than our sin. God’s children come home to realize that life in the Father’s house is what they’ve craved all along. Life isn’t better out there. Not even in Elmer at Christmas…
Some of us have moved to a “Long Island.” We are skulking around in a “distant country” today, trying to satisfy our longings, aching to fit in, searching desperately for love. We’ve wandered far from our spiritual home. We need to come to our senses too. When we do, we’ll find that our Father has been watching and waiting for our return. Like my sweet mom shivering on her front porch until we pulled up, our Father has the light on and His arms are always open. He wants us to come home to His rest.
This Christmas, savor the longing you feel within. Attend to it. It will lead you home where you belong.
You’re right, Jim Croce. New York’s not our home either.
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
John 14:23
—Eileen Hill
*Please be advised that this blog represents the views, opinions and beliefs of the writer and does not necessarily reflect those of our church leadership or denominational affiliation.