Moving and Traveling with My Lord!

My wife, Kathy, recently ran into a long time work-mate and friend. Kathy worked with this lady for MANY years at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. The lady’s son was also one of the best friends of our son, Josh. Josh and he were often together through their years in school. They also continued spending time with one another as they got married and as they raised families. Kathy’s friend shared that her son really misses Josh. Josh and his family moved from Palmer in July. He is now principal at a large Elementary School south of Seattle.

Kathy shared her encounter with Josh who replied, “I miss my friends too; AND I miss my family. But the move was the right thing for my family.” I will affirm Josh’s opinion. We do really miss our son, our daughter-in-law, and our grandchildren. But Josh is right. The move was the right thing, a good thing for his family.

When we learned this spring and summer of the coming relocation of our son and his family, of their move away from where we live, we were all somewhat sad. Their new location was not what we expected. However, I shared some family history with Kathy. “How do you think my parents felt when you and I moved from Jacksonville, Florida, to Alaska in 1991?” Kathy and I migrated from a location 85 miles from my parents’ home, to a place that is over 4,600 miles away. My mother did tell us, somewhat angrily, “If you had become a missionary in Africa you would be closer to us than if you moved to Alaska!” She was not happy.

I also shared with Kathy, “Guess what my dad did when he was the same age as I was when we moved to Alaska? He moved his family 1200 miles south to Florida!” I remember the sadness in my grandfather. All 5 of his grandchildren were now living far away. So, I guess that moving to a new location and home is now somewhat of a Rockey tradition.

Do you know that many of our ‘fathers in the faith’ made large moves during their lifetimes? Think of Abraham and his family. Abraham moved from Ur of the Chaldeans (near present day Iraq), to Haran (what is part of present day Turkey), and then to Canaan (present day Israel). His grandson, Jacob, and family moved from Canaan to Egypt. The Lord instructed the Israelites that, when they entered the Promised Land after the Exodus, “Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: "My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous.” (Deuteronomy 25:5) When Moses’ wife gave birth to a child we are told, in the old King James Version, “And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a ‘stranger in a strange land.’” (Exodus 2: 22) It seems that moving from place to place may be a tradition for the people of God in Scripture also.

However, love and family are not destroyed by distance. Abraham and family did actually visit back and forth between Canaan and Haran. Moses also traveled back to Egypt, and then led the Israelites to a new home in the Promised Land. Likewise, since Kathy and I have moved to Alaska, we have continued to regularly travel back to Florida to spend time with family. We also traveled in October and visited Josh and Erin and family in WA. And, my experience is that most people who live in Alaska have family in another part of our country, and do visit from time to time,

In the New Testament God shares part of the reason for all this movement. We read more about Abraham, and other people of faith, in Hebrews 11. “8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. . . . 13 All these people . . . admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.” (Hebrews 11:8-10, 13 b) We are “aliens and strangers on earth”, because we are “looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Like the old hymn says, “Heaven is my Home.”

We do have earthly homes in this life, yet only for a while. We find places we love with the people we love. That is what makes it hard to leave one location and travel to another. I know. I have traveled to new places numerous times, often leaving friends and family.

But, truly, not only is heaven our home, for children of God our home is where our Lord is. Do you know the verse from the introduction of the Gospel of John? “14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) Jesus is God who became a man and dwelt with us as the Savior of the world. Jesus is God who lives in us. (Galatians 2:20) When God is with us, giving His forgiveness and life through Jesus, well . . . anywhere can be home. Anywhere is home when Christ is there. Let me repeat that: Anywhere is home when Christ is there.

We may long for a home, for a place where everyone stays around and loves one another. However, not only does life change, but sin brings death. Homes and families do change. That is another reason the forgiveness and life which Jesus gives are so important. That is also why it helps us to know that we look “forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Someday we WILL all be together, in the presence of our Lord, our Creator, our Savior.

How many places have you lived? Do you miss former times and places? Do you look forward with faith and hope “to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God?”