Place

I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now… Come further up, come further in!  

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle.

Do you have a word of the year for 2024? Mine is dwell. I have been fleshing out this word and find that it relates to the word, place. And that brought to mind an article I had written several years back that was just a free write post for “Five-Minute Friday” using a one-word prompt.  So I gave myself permission to do a rewrite of the post and share it with you today. 

Place…

"Hold my place."

"It's not your place!"

"Whose place is it?"

"My place."

"My place in this world." 

 "A place in my heart."

"A place of worship."

"A place to belong."

"My favorite place to be."

"A place to call home." 

 "I go to prepare a place for you..."

"...but I can't be in two places at once." 

"Feeling out of place."

All familiar phrases...how many times have I heard them? Or even say to myself?

We all long to find our place in this world. We long to belong. To have a place to call home...a place to come home to.  A dwelling place.

Our true home is one where we are known, loved, and accepted. Where we belong.  

So where do we belong?  Is it home? 

For some, home is a place to escape to…a safe haven. A place to return. A place to just be.

For others, home is a place to escape from. Because deep in the core of their heart they know that their home is nothing but a dark shadow of what a true home should be. 

In place of being known, there is ignorance. 

In place of love, there is resentment. 

In place of acceptance, there is rejection. 

No matter how comfortable, or even out-of-place we may feel in our homes, it seems there is always this desire for more. Even when we can’t quite put our finger on it, there seems to be this void that nothing seems to fill. Even the healthiest families seem to have some level of dysfunction. 

C.S Lewis gives us a possible explanation for this lack that we struggle with. 

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, 

the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

Yes, we were made for another world. One in which we were in complete fellowship with our Heavenly Father and with each other. But then the fall. Sin entered the world and we’ve been struggling to get back to that sweet and complete fellowship ever since. Everything changed, but not all was or is lost. There is hope.

The Psalmist gives us hope in the middle of our struggle to regain our footing…to find our place. 

He reached down from heaven and rescued me: He drew me out of deep waters. He delivered me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me. They attacked me at a moment when I was weakest, but the LORD upheld me. He led me to a place of safety; He rescued me because He delights in me.   

Psalm 18:16-19

This earthly home is only temporary...and yet even here you can experience home in its truest sense. Those of us who accept Christ as our LORD, our Savior, and choose to become His disciple will find our home in Him. 

His grace provides a safe place. 

A place where we are known...truly known. A place where we are accepted just as we are. A place where we are loved so much that we are not left there...at the point of acceptance...but are led to realize the fullness of who we were created to be. A place to be. A place to belong. A place in this world and the one to come. 

And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. Jesus, John 14:3

That’s a promise! A sure hope in the One who holds the future and the present. 

Blessings,