Home Is Where Your Toothbrush Is

That’s what my brother Luke always says, and I think it’s true.

When I got back to Wichita after five weeks of being gone I first went by my parents house because I had given them the key to my apartment.  But then I got to talking with them until late so I just spent the night over there.  Then the next day I came back to my apartment.

I was surprised how my apartment didn’t really feel like home when I walked in, it just seemed like another place to stay.  I’ve got to where I sleep pretty solid about most anywhere.

Now I’ll admit the city of Wichita does feel like home to me…  because it’s so familiar and I have memories all over.  But there is no longer any exact house or place I’m that sentimentally attached to.

Both the writer of Hebrews and Peter refer to our being foreigners and pilgrims on this earth, which I’ve always found interesting:

“All these people were still living by faith when they died… And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth…   they were longing for a better country–a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”  (Hebrews 11)

Jesus talked about storing up our treasures in heaven, not on earth.  Which reminds me of the song:

This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through
my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door
and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore

I think for the Follower of Jesus there is to be a real sense where we never feel we belong as part of the “World.”  James puts it more bluntly, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”  (James 4:4)

It reminds me of Pilgrim’s Progress when Christian and Faithful are detained in Vanity Fair as criminals.  Faithful ends up being executed as a martyr.  What was their crime?  Nothing but this: They had disdain for the business and wares of the city.  In short, they wouldn’t buy.

Anyways, enough preaching.  On a similar vein of “wandering,” I was wondering how many states I’ve visited.  I found this website that generated the following map for me:

Turns out I’ve been to 30 states.  How many have you visited?