Have you ever tried to go home? Author Thomas Wolfe famously wrote, “You can’t go back home.” What did he mean? For instance, I have gone back to many of the different places I lived as a child. I found the small house with the chain link fence in Amarillo to which my parents brought me home from the hospital. My friend Scott and I went back to the towns in Germany where I grew up. The houses were still there, but they were not exactly what I remembered. My large childhood church had shrunk over the years. Likewise, some of the houses. Wolfe’s point was the homes we leave change and we change. So even though we can get back to a location, it’s not the same.
Moses left the Israelite people when he was a baby. Now he wanted to go back and help the people. Imagine him as a highly educated, very powerful member of Pharaoh’s household. Perhaps he never felt quite at home in Pharaoh’s house. When he saw an Egyptian mistreating one of the Israelites, Moses killed the offender. No turning back. He had chosen his team. Moses may have hoped to rescue his own people at the expense of the Egyptians. Surely his own people would recognize him and welcome his help. They did not.
In some ways, Moses’ story anticipates Jesus’ story. Our Savior came to his own people, but they did not recognize him or receive him (John 1:10-11). You would think when Jesus came to the world he created, to his own people that all would welcome him. We did not. To this day, I hear pundits make fun of the idea that Jesus came as the Messiah. The world God made continues to change. But Jesus has not changed. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
Good news: to as many as receive him, who believe in his name, Jesus gives the right to become children of God (John 1:12). God has not left us, but we have left God. Today we may return to him if we will. Will we? Not only does he promise a room in his home to us (John 14:1-4), but Jesus promises that he and his Father will make their home in us today if we love him (14:23). God has room for us. Do we have room for him? Come on. Let’s go home to God today. We will not be disappointede are getting closer to dawn.
