“Look and see, for everyone is coming home! Your sons are coming from distant lands; your little daughters will be carried home.”

Isaiah 60:4

This is a time of year in which people come home. College students finish exams and head home for Christmas. Airports are crowded with children of all ages who are on their way back to their families. In just a few days, I’ll join these holiday travelers as my family and I return to Southern California to spend Christmas with our extended family. Coming home is one of life’s sweet gifts.

For Israel, coming home represented more than a holiday vacation. It meant that their centuries- long exile was over. God had forgiven their sins and was in the process of restoring the nation. Israel’s future homecoming would be a tangible sign that the kingdom of God was at hand.

When we accept God’s grace through faith in Christ, we already begin to experience coming home. Our souls are at home with the Lord. Yet there is an even greater homecoming yet to come. In the vision of Revelation we read: “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them'" Rev 21:3). There will be a time when God will make his home among us. We will be at home with him in his restored creation. During the season of Advent, we remember this hope and look forward to the homecoming of God.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: Have you ever experienced a dramatic homecoming? When? How does the future homecoming of God impact your faith and hope, and even how you live each day?

PRAYER: Dear Lord, first of all, I want to pray for all of those who will be coming home in this season. Grant them safety in their travel. May families and friends appreciate in a new way the joy of being at home.

I also want to thank you, Lord, for the fact that I can be at home with you right now through Christ. What a joy to know that I am safe with you, that I belong in your family.

Yet this is just the beginning. I look forward with wonder to the day when you will make your home here with us on earth, when the new creation will be complete. What a day that will be! So, with the earliest Christians I pray, Maranatha! O Lord, come! Amen.