PSALM 84:10
Stepping inside our seventh house within ten years, I exhale submissively. Moving has become a routine part of my life. However, it is annoying when I always have to ask my mom where we keep the Tupperware. Dragging my suitcase up the stairs, I flop down on my new bed in my bare room, the white walls silently screaming unfamiliarity. I cannot help but wonder how long we’ll be staying. My family has lived everywhere from Chicago to Romania, where my parents were missionaries. I used to hate moving, tearing up my roots and attachments every few years, replacing friendships like a pair of shoes. I have spent a night in a thousand different beds: some new and exciting, some familiar, some lonely, some comforting, some scary, some encouraging, some I’ve revisited, and some I will never see again. The one location that I can constantly return to is the house of the Lord. Sometimes I find it while I’m curled quietly on a living room couch, sometimes in the majestic cathedrals of Eastern Europe, but it is always there. I can invariably call out to God, wherever I am. The verse above taught me to value my alone time with Christ in the consistent home of my heart. Though my family’s roaming has been stressful and unstable, I wouldn’t trade it for an unsellable house or an immovable bed; my permanent home is in heaven. Moving so often has exposed me to innumerable facets of life. It has trained me to find my stability and my home in the presence of God, a place that surpasses any residence.
Meredith Janke, 17, Houghton Christian Academy, Houghton, NY
God, I want my home to be in You. When I’m feeling
lost and homeless, remind me that You are always there.