Matthew 8:20 — And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

Well, as I said yesterday, we’re back from our mini vacation. That means we’re home. I love the wonderful definition provided by William Blackstone, the great English jurist of the eighteenth century: “Home is that place from which when a man had departed, he is a wanderer until he has returned.” In that definition we surely see why Jesus could have no home on earth. He was far, far, from His home. In a way, so am I, and so is Myra.
Make no mistake, the house that Myra and I live in is, though by no means grand, the best and happiest earthly home that either of us could imagine — and to reach back to the 1820’s for another quotation, we do feel the truth of the old words:

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there
Which we seek through the world, is ne’er met with elsewhere.

Home, Home, sweet sweet home!
There’s no place like home!
There’s no place like home!

It can be said, too, that we love our adopted country. It has been kind and generous to us, and for us not to love it would be ungrateful indeed. And yet … We are “strangers and pilgrims” as Peter says, or “our citizenship is in heaven” as Paul wrote to the the Philippians.
I suppose a lot of words have been written about what makes a house a home. I hope you’ll forgive me if I add a few more. I’ll be quite happy if, in turn you want to add a few of your own!
It starts, of course, with people. Home cannot be home without the people we love. In our final home will be God our Father, Jesus our Brother, all those Christians we have loved in this life, and many more we have yet to meet. Nobody will be missing that we would wish to see!
Then there are possessions. I’m not one to cling to things — and yet to be at home with “my” chair, with the many other things which in themselves have no special value but which say “home”, gives me a very special kind of peace. Now I don’t know what “things” will be in my eternal home, but I know that “The Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” (Psalm 84:11)
Lastly, there is the place. As Myra and I turned into our development yesterday, there was an extra lift to our spirits. Home is a jewel in a well-loved setting. So it is with our final destination. Jesus told John about it:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. (Revelation 21:1, 5)

Myra and I are truly blessed in the people, possessions and place that make our earthly home. Even so, we can hardly wait to see the place, possessions and people God has in store for us!