Article October 14, 1996 Issue

Home is in the heart

Laura K. Robinson-Long

It was with some trepidation that I boarded the plane for a large city on the East Coast of the United States, many miles from my midwestern university town. How could our home remain intact without me for two whole weeks? Surely, I ruminated, my precious family would run out of underwear, bury themselves in rubble, oversleep, and starve in my absence. After all, isn't home a place made by a person? Nonsense, of course. But this was just one of the many lessons in store for me as the plane taxied down the runway with my limited sense of home as part of my carry-on baggage.

I pondered what the Bible has to reveal about home. The way the shepherds of Biblical times were constantly tending their sheep and bringing them "home" describes how God shelters His beloved children—His spiritual ideas—under the wingspread of divine Love. The Psalmist assures us, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Ps. 91:1). Thirty thousand feet off the ground, I began to see that the "secret place" was in the heart—in our thinking—not in the house. Our real home, which God has provided for every one of us, is the consciousness of divine Love.

My subsequent peace of mind was jolted by the sight of homeless people on the streets of the city I was visiting. I found myself almost overcome by pity and sadness as a stream of wanderers implored me for spare change. An elderly woman hobbled up to me at an intersection and poured out her tale of woe. I think I would have given my life savings to take that look of desperation from her eyes. I did dig into my pocket and hand her a five-dollar bill. Mission accomplished, devoid of gratitude, she dropped her gaze to indifference.

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