I want to paraphrase Ruth 1:7 slightly. “She left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take her home.”

Do you have a place you call home? Home for me is a tad complicated. I call Union Point, where I spent most of my childhood, home. But I also spent time in the small town of Jersey. A couple of years after graduating from High School, I moved to Nicholson. It was there that I fell in love, married, and began a family. It was home, until my calling in ministry carried me to Habersham County, Lincoln County, Hall County, Spalding County, and now back in Jackson County. A part of each of those places feels like home. I have reached the place where, if anyone asks me where home is, I tell them, “Wherever Marlene is, that’s home.”

Due to circumstances beyond her control, Naomi had to leave her home for a land far away. For a while, it felt like home, with her husband and two sons. While there, her sons married. But then death took her husband and sons from her, and she was left with two daughters-in-law.  

One day, she heard that things had changed back home, so she packed her bags. The two daughters-in-law began the journey with her, but one turned back to the place she called home. That left Naomi and Ruth. God had a special plan for both of them, especially for Ruth, but neither could see it at the time.

It’s often easier to see God’s plan for our lives when we reach the place where we can look back and see that wherever we were at the moment, God was there directing each step. I never imagined where my journey would take me when I was a boy growing up in a mill village. I never dreamed that instead of one home, I would have several. I could not have envisioned the beautiful people God would bring into my life to walk this path with me.

But I’m also keenly aware of this. With every passing day, I am getting closer to my real home. The dwelling places on earth are temporary, a preparatory place for eternity. My earthly journey has caused me to move several times. There is one move yet remaining. The words I long to hear when that day comes are these: “Welcome home, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joys of the Lord.”