Seventh-day Adventist® Church

As I was driving home last night I passed a sign pointing to a village called "Great Ness"! What a fantastic name. Imagine being asked where you live, and you reply, "I live in Great Ness."

Living in greatness may be a place, financial comfort, a bestowed title, or an attitude of mind. But is living in greatness, or Great Ness, the best place to be?

My kids were watching a Focus on the Family video, Adventures in Odessey, in which one of the characters lives in a house called "Whit's End"! A funny place I have seen is a pub called "The Nobody Inn". 

Places are important to us. Where we live. Where we used to live. Where we were born. Where we had a special time with God. Where we met a loved one. Where we got married. Where we go to be alone with God. Where someone is buried. Where we work!

I picked my mother-in-law, Cecilia, up from Belfast International Airport and started the hour and a half journey to Enniskillen where my wife, Emma, and I lived. Early in the journey, Cecilia mentioned about Emma coming home some time. I picked her up on the comment. Coming home? Where is home? It was a long journey ahead and the debate kept me awake.

For Cecilia, home was where her parents lived, that is, where she grew up. Also home is where she lives now.

My grapple was that for me I have lived in many properties in my childhood. Which one was my home? My parents had moved four or five times since I lived with them. Their house was not my home. I was a "blow-in" from England living in Northern Ireland. Was England my home, or Northern Ireland?

I concluded that my home was the place I live in with my wife, and children.

We finished the conversation with varying applications of where HOME is for us.

John 7:53 - 8:2 (NLT)
Then the meeting broke up, and everybody went home.
Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.

In this story Jesus did not go "home". Where was home to Him? 

Luke 9:58 (NIV)
Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’

In this response Jesus suggests He has no home, or fixed abode. 

The Mount of Olives was a favourite place Jesus went to. Seemingly it was not a problem that He had no permanent home. When others returned to their homes, Jesus went to the hillside, maybe the Garden of Gethsemane. 

Before Jesus ascended into the clouds He made this promise to His followers, 
John 14: 1-4 (NLT)
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.”

This may need some more explaining, but the point I am making and pondering over is this, does it matter what name we give our home, favourite place, our house? Or does it matter more who is there with us? Our family. Our friends. Our God?

-Pr Nathan Stickland