One of the lunch discussion topics I brought up at the English L'abri this summer was homesickness. Why do we feel sick at heart about not being at a particular geographical location we call, "home?"
I've been reading through Lord of the Rings in preparation for a Tolkien class I'm taking and I find myself identifying with Frodo and Sam regarding their almost mythic loyalty, longing, and passion about "the shire." Not everyone has a "shire." I think the idea and attachment to "home" can be potent for some and not for others. Being one who resonates with this attachment, I believe those who do not have this potent sense of belonging to a real land are missing out on a powerful theological/emotional dynamic. Dorothy was right. "There's no place like home." Without home, we are truly islands.
Home, of course, conjures up a lot of sentiments. Like the theme song to "Cheers" (here in Boston... it's on my 'must visit' list...) ..."Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came." Home is belonging. It's the place we decided, intentionally or not, to dig our heels in and say, "I'm going to spend my life loving, investing, and knowing intimately this place. So, the place is a piece of us and we are a piece of that place. We can even start articulating it as loving a town or city, almost like it's a person. I've wanted to try to hug Asheville from time to time, or the mountains. Mountains make me feel snug... maybe they're trying to hug me.
With all this personification of nature, you may think I'm reading too much Tolkien. Perhaps. But, I do believe there are spiritual dimensions to geographical places and communities. And, I might add, I think we often overlook them... to our loss. If we forget this, we inhibit our capacity to see that when God is our home, it is not simply in some ethereal, vague sense of "being with God." No. It is far more. God is our home and we can be anywhere in the world and be at home, in a way. But, when home is "the shire," God being home takes on a whole new meaning. What if God moved into "the shire?" What if the Spirit of God transformed and redeemed the spirit of a place in such as way as to make it more "the shire" than it ever was before? That is precisely what I think is happening and will happen. And... that is a glory to behold.
And, that glory is one worth feeling homesick for.
I've been reading through Lord of the Rings in preparation for a Tolkien class I'm taking and I find myself identifying with Frodo and Sam regarding their almost mythic loyalty, longing, and passion about "the shire." Not everyone has a "shire." I think the idea and attachment to "home" can be potent for some and not for others. Being one who resonates with this attachment, I believe those who do not have this potent sense of belonging to a real land are missing out on a powerful theological/emotional dynamic. Dorothy was right. "There's no place like home." Without home, we are truly islands.
Home, of course, conjures up a lot of sentiments. Like the theme song to "Cheers" (here in Boston... it's on my 'must visit' list...) ..."Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came." Home is belonging. It's the place we decided, intentionally or not, to dig our heels in and say, "I'm going to spend my life loving, investing, and knowing intimately this place. So, the place is a piece of us and we are a piece of that place. We can even start articulating it as loving a town or city, almost like it's a person. I've wanted to try to hug Asheville from time to time, or the mountains. Mountains make me feel snug... maybe they're trying to hug me.
With all this personification of nature, you may think I'm reading too much Tolkien. Perhaps. But, I do believe there are spiritual dimensions to geographical places and communities. And, I might add, I think we often overlook them... to our loss. If we forget this, we inhibit our capacity to see that when God is our home, it is not simply in some ethereal, vague sense of "being with God." No. It is far more. God is our home and we can be anywhere in the world and be at home, in a way. But, when home is "the shire," God being home takes on a whole new meaning. What if God moved into "the shire?" What if the Spirit of God transformed and redeemed the spirit of a place in such as way as to make it more "the shire" than it ever was before? That is precisely what I think is happening and will happen. And... that is a glory to behold.
And, that glory is one worth feeling homesick for.
1 comment:
God is definitely going to move into the shire... and I believe too about the strong spiritual dimensions to geographical places and communities, thanks for posting!
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