Going Home
This year, we're collaborating with writers across the Augustine Collective, a network of student-led Christian journals, to bring you a series of short devotional articles during this season of Lent, the 40-day period prior to Easter. Find this series also published by UChicago's CANA Journal and UC Berkeley's TAUG.
By rachelle wong, uc berkeley
I’ve been counting down the days until spring break since the last three-day-weekend back in February. Among the many appeals of break—a week without classes, a week to catch up on work, a week to simply rest—the primary reason why I’m excited is that spring break means going home.
Going home.
Honestly, this has become my only motivation for the past few weeks and certainly for the past few days. If I take this midterm, then I can go home. If I finish this paper, then I can go home. If I turn in this lab report, then I can go home.
But what is it about home that makes me yearn so deeply for it? Though I appreciate the space of my own bedroom and the stillness of the suburbs compared to the constant noise of the city, above all else, I feel safe when I am home. I trust that I will be taken care of when I am home. When I am home, I know that I am loved.
Is that not exactly what the Father promises us when we live in His presence? “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?… But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” [1] My Father, who cannot go back on His word, has already assured me that He keeps me safe, that He takes care of me, that He loves me.
As I meditate on the Psalms, there are many verses that call my mind to my Father’s house. “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.” [2] In response, my heart is filled with this one desire: to remain in His presence all of my days, because it is truly precious to be with Him! “For a day in [His] courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” [3]
While the psalmists longed for the presence of the Lord, I can “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace” because of His mercy and love—and what a blessing this truly is! [4] I can speak to, commune with, and adore my Father from within the depths of my spirit. No matter where I am or what happens in this world, I can rest in His divine presence because my faithful God promised me this: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” [5]
Would I desire the house of the Lord even more than my earthly home! While I am here on earth, would I choose daily to remain in His dwelling place by loving Him and keeping His Word because that, too, is home! And though my time here is temporary, I can take hope in the wonderful truth: “Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” [6] Indeed, in His time, He will bring me to my heavenly home, and I will behold His beauty and praise Him forevermore.
Rachelle is a first-year at UC Berkeley studying Chemical Biology.
SOURCES
[1] Matthew 6:26, 33
[2] Psalm 27:4
[3] Psalm 84:10
[4] Hebrews 4:16
[5] John 14:23
[6] Psalm 23:6