You know that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you’re coming home after a long journey? As soon as you get to those familiar landmarks, you feel the joyful anticipation building with every mile or every step of progress. It’s like leaving behind the uncomfortable, difficult, unsafe world in exchange for everything you love and that loves you.
When flying, home stretch begins for me in Denver airport, since I’ve spent so much time there and it’s so familiar. When driving, home stretch begins when I hit our county, where I recognize every hill, valley, and tree. And there’s nothing like that feeling of pulling onto your street, knowing home is waiting for you.
There are lots of forms of home stretches in life—from minor everyday events to life changing horizons—where one feels relieved, comforted, and full of anticipation. I can feel a great sense of relief toward the end of raking the yard, working out, or even checking off my to do list. This summer I’ve been taking college classes and this week is home stretch. Feel the relief!
I think God placed this special feeling and longing for home in us to give us the glimmer and hope of the real home stretch. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t long for my real home—the one that will be a permanent sense of relief, joy, and comfort. In that home, we will never feel uprooted, unsafe, unloved, insecure, or anxious ever again.
Regardless of where each of us is in our journey of life, I can’t help but feel that we are all in a more profound kind of home stretch, where all of creation is nearing it’s final renewal and resting place. It feels like it is not far down the road, and I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait!
For I consider that the sufferings of this present season are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. Romans 8:18-19