My family and I spent half of the year last year in the US for home assignment. Packing our bags for six months was no small task: how do you decide what clothes to take and which ones to leave? Which toys could the kids realistically pack? Did we really need our heaviest coats? And while we fortunately did not have to move out of our apartment before leaving our host country, we did need to prepare it for people who would live in it while we were away – cleaning it, writing instructions about all its quirks, finally going through the stacks of papers we’d been ignoring, etc. By the time we boarded the plane, I was exhausted: leaving home for six months is hard work! 

Then came the six months of living in our “home country,” a time that, as many of you know, is filled with mixed emotions. The joyful and sweet times with family and friends were mixed with other moments of feeling the awkwardness of not exactly fitting into life there. The excitement of enjoying experiences and food we’d missed sometimes brought to mind experiences we were currently missing in our host country. As the months went by, we simultaneously felt most settled and more ready to return. Then the packing happened in reverse. We felt ready to go home but sad to leave. 

We landed in our host country, stepped back into our apartment, and felt the joy of returning home but also the strangeness of having been away for half a year. We had joyful reunions with friends here but also felt the awkwardness of struggling through a language we hadn’t used in six months. We settled back in and also remembered that we do not totally fit in here either. 

In summary, it was a strange year but also a year of being reminded that this world truly is not our home. Just as Abraham and the other saints described in Hebrews 11 looked forward to the permanent, heavenly city designed by God Himself, we too are sojourners on this earth who should keep our eyes fixed on our true home. This world is our home for a time, and while we are here, we must tend it and work it as ambassadors of Christ. But let us always long for our heavenly country and live here with certainty of our citizenship there.