Grant Batchelder

Dear friends in Christ,

(Hebrews 11:8–16)

At some point, I think most of us begin asking the same question: Where is home?

It’s a question I’ve found myself returning to over the years.

At first, the answer seems obvious. Home is where we grew up, where our family lives, or perhaps where we have chosen to build a life. But many of us have discovered that home can change. We move. People we love move away. Communities change. Sometimes we return to a place we once called home only to realize it no longer feels like it.

Hebrews tells us that Abraham lived “as though he were in a foreign land,” looking forward to “the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” The author goes on to say that Abraham and those with him “confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth,” seeking “a better country.”

It seems to me that this longing is something we all know. We catch glimpses of home throughout our lives: around a family table, in a community that welcomes us, in friendships that know us deeply, in moments of peace that seem almost too good to last. Yet even our happiest homes leave us with a lingering longing.

They are not failures. They are reminders.

They remind us that we were created for something more than any one place can offer. Our deepest longing is not simply for a hometown, a house, or even a country. It is for the home where we will finally be fully known, fully loved, and fully at peace with God and with one another.

Until then, every place we call home is an opportunity to reflect that coming Kingdom. Every act of welcome, every shared meal, every reconciliation, every kindness becomes a small glimpse of the home we are all seeking.

Where have you caught a glimpse of home, and how might you help someone else experience it this week?

In Christ,

—Grant