Joanne Viola

Days & Thoughts

Our Quest For Home

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In the last few weeks, our family has experienced two moves, packing up all that was owned, carefully wrapping the breakables and treasures, so that nothing would be broken.

We have had some stay with us for a week with all their furniture and belongings in our garage for a few days, while the other expressed just wanting to move back in and stay with us for good.

We call our places of abode such things as apartments, condos, tiny houses, mansions, houses, and homes, and that is how the concept of “home” began to get stuck in my head.

At this point in my life, I have lived in places we rented and in those we owned yet each place definitely was home for me. Someone once said:

“Home is not a place … it’s a feeling.” (Anonymous)

How very true.

Home is the place we find the things of comfort, the memories, the people. Home is where we find shelter from the storms of life and battle the storms within. Upon arriving home, we shed all masks and can be truly ourselves, and sometimes be free of ourselves.

Home is not a place. It is the journey we are on our entire lives.

Jesus shared His thoughts on this concept of home with His disciples one day:

Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way I am going.” (John 14:1-4, NLT)

The search for “home” is embedded in our DNA. It is the very reason we buy furniture and decorate, making the places we live as beautiful and cozy as humanly possible.

We will always long for home for our hearts will always long for God.

To satisfy our quest for home while on this earthly journey, Jesus, by way of the Holy Spirit, indwells us. He makes His home in our hearts. He lives in us until that time we can live with Him.

 

Today I am joining … Porch Stories and Tell His Story and Coffee For Your Heart .

 

Support

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Each Friday my writing stems from a word prompt. Five minutes, one word prompt. The prompt this week is … Support.

Turning to dictionary.com, I read:

  • to bear or hold up (a load, mass, structure, part, etc.); serve as a foundation for
  • to sustain or withstand (weight, pressure, strain, etc.) without giving way
  • to undergo or endure, especially with patience or submission
  • to sustain (a person, the mind, spirits, courage, etc.) under trial or affliction.

Our God is intimately involved in the life of each one of His children. He knows each of us perfectly right down to the number of each dyed hair. He is present in our lives, every single minute down to the most minutest of details.

And this is the truth which gives us the support needed in the hardest of circumstances –

Our God will support us in all things for all of our days.

“If I go to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.” (Psalm 139:10-11, NLT)

Our God, intimately with us in every detail of our lives, is supporting us every step of the way. I admit – I have often read this psalm and been struck by the truth of how God ordains life and grows each of us in the womb of our mothers.

But there is another truth found in this psalm which should invite us to bow humbly before the grace and mercy of our God, who alone is infinite in His power and wisdom; abounds in grace and mercy; and loves us fiercely.

It is His strength which will support us.
“… and your strength will support me. (Psalm 139:10b, NLT)

 

Today I am joining … Five Minute Friday and Faith On Fire and Faith Filled Friday and Faith ‘N Friends and Fresh Market Friday .