In 1845, the English poet Robert Browning wrote his poem “Home Thoughts From Abroad”, in which he extolled the beauty (the sounds, scents, and colours) of the English countryside in spring, a stark contrast to the hot, dusty and noisy streets of Florence, where he was living.
Recently I’ve been thinking of home too. It’s now 20 years since we moved to France and we’ve been back to the UK many times since then, but our last visit had me reflecting on the meaning of home.
As we drove off the Shuttle from Calais and joined the stream of cars and lorries hurtling up the M20 from the Kent coast, we were literally driving over the woods and paths where I had walked (and played) as a child and teenager, now buried under six lanes of tarmac. We were heading for Derbyshire, where my daughter and her husband live. The area is home to his extended family and has become our ‘home from home’ when we are back in the UK. Just as their Church has become our spiritual home whenever we visit.
On the return journey, we stopped the night at a hotel before taking the shuttle under the Channel the next morning. We’d taken a slightly different route south, coming off the motorway early, passing right by the village where I grew up. My heart rate rose as we passed the familiar sign posts and turnings, and I saw houses flashing by where dear friends had once lived. Here I am, nearly 72 and still getting excited at being so close to my childhood home…
Perhaps It’s not altogether strange. We can become very attached to places where we have lived, filled with memories of times past. Yet, as a Christian (for nearly fifty years) I’m very conscious that this is not my true home, neither England nor France, even though I have put down roots in both places.
We are here on earth for such a short timer. Often it’s only as you grow older that you realise how brief that time is. For the young, the days and years stretch out ahead, full of endless possibilities, but the truth is that every day is one day less in the time allotted to each of us. This is why I love it when people can talk about death, not as “passing” (I’ve never liked this euphemism), but as “going home”. Perhaps you can only say this when you know for sure where you are going.
In many religions there remains an element of uncertainty about whether or not we will get to that better place, if it is better. Have we got enough Brownie points? Will our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds? Will we be let in or will we find ourselves stuck on the treadmill, reincarnated as a rabbit about to be eaten by a fox about to be eaten by a bear?
So, how can we be sure where we are going? It’s not a presumption on my part because it is not based on anything I have done, it is based on what someone else has done for me. That someone is Jesus Christ. Although he himself was God, he chose to come to earth as a man, and pay the price for my sins by dying on the cross. Not just dying, but rising from the dead. It’s not a myth, he did it. His death and resurrection are two of the most well attested events concerning an actual historical person.
I certainly believe it is true, and since I believed that Jesus died and rose for me, my life here on earth has been transformed. It’s as though I have received an advance instalment on the eternal life that awaits me after my earthly body dies. All I had to do is believe in him, in what he said (says), in what he did (does). Now, having believed, it’s for me to follow him.
The same offer is there for everyone who believes in him. The Bible tells us several things about this. Here are Jesus’ own words in John 14:1-6
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe in Me as well. In My Father’s house there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
You may be like Thomas, one of Jesus’ followers who always seemed to have an objection:
“Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”.
In God’s house, in eternity, there is a place already prepared for me. When it’s my time to die, to go home, Jesus has promised that he will come and welcome me. What can I say but “thank you, Lord”. What can YOU say? I pray that it is also “thank you, Lord”. I’ll end with a final quote, this time from Nabieel Qureshi, an Iranian American muslim who became a Christian:
“Without Jesus, we approach life with the expectation of death. With Jesus, we approach death with the expectation of life.”
With love in him,
Sarah
Sarah Cunnington
Sarah Cunnington is a Christian artist and (more recently) writer, who has been living in France with her husband Martyn since 2005, where they jointly lead a small English speaking House Church.
She became a Christian at the age of 25 following a dramatic encounter with Jesus Christ, which totally changed the direction of her life. Now, with family in the Chesterfield area, Redeemer King has become her home Church whenever she's back in the UK.
