Yesterday we roamed the city of Austin looking for a home. If you’ve ever looked to purchase a home, you know that the initial buzz of becoming a homeowner quickly wears off when faced with the number-crunching and tricks of the real estate trade. Starting at 9:30 AM and ending the day at 7:30 PM, we were weary by the time we made it to our friend’s house, where we are staying…and this morning we will do it all over again!
When will we move? Fall, Spring, never? Where will we move? East, South, North, Central Austin? Somewhere else? As we continue to walk by faith in our journey towards churchplanting in Austin, I am poignantly reminded that our home is nowhere to be found, or at least the form of our home.
If home is where the heart is, then we will have to wait until the end of the age to kick up our feet. Abraham’s life is a parable of this reality. He left his family, home, and culture to obey a call from God which was pretty unclear–“go to a land I will show you.” Of course, as with everything with the eternally faithful and covenantal God, it wasn’t without a promise: “And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” If Abraham obeyed, God would thrill his heart by making it a conduit of divine blessing…for the whole world. In short, Abraham was promised everything, the universe, if he would follow God.
Our search for a home is no different. The world we walk is our inheritance, but in rare form. God in Christ is redeeming it, peoples and cultures, through the Spirit in partnership with the people of Abraham. The heavenly blessings promised to Abraham are breaking into this curse-ridden world, transforming families, homes, cultures and cities. This is the gospel. This is the promise to Abraham and to my family. It is his promise to you, wherever you go. You are insufficient, but have been called to go and collect on an inheritance purchased by the death of Jesus. Ready this world for the world that is come, his Kingdom, by denying your sufficiency and the satisfaction of home with four walls. Accept the sufficiency of Christ to give you a multi-dimensional home, a new heavens and earth, where the world will be your couch and the universe your ottoman…and until then long for home, home with Christ and his new creation.