Longing for Home

So... lately I have been bitten by the house bug, and I don't mean some insect that lives in my house. No I have recently really been desiring a house. It all started when I saw that this super cute little house across from my church was for rent. I went and looked at it and all of a sudden it was like WHOOOSH!!!! I want a house. But that particular house was too much to rent and all the deposits were a little high so I gave up on it. But then I was telling a friend about it and she started pointing out all the houses for sale, and that some people might be willing to rent until I have a better idea of where I will be permanently. So I went and looked at one house and it was not impressive. But there are a few that I am really interested. But I started thinking about it, and about why I want a house so badly. I mean, I have a great apartment (aside from the nasty carpet that Lily is making more nasty). I have quiet neighbors, cheap rent, a huge backyard that someone else mows... why would I want a house. I have come up with a few reasons.

1. Everyone wants something of their own. I don't own this apartment so I cannot do what I would like to it. I cannot paint the walls or change anything without permission.

2. There is a sense of settledness and permanency in a house. An apartment gives the sense of changableness: that you could leave any second. And while that might be attractive for a while, part of you wants to settle down and put down roots.

3. This might be the most important and the most overlooked reason of all. We are longing for heaven. C.S. Lewis (one of my favs) said, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world." I feel like my desire for a home is merely an earthly reflection of my desire for my true home: Heaven. In John 14:3, Jesus said, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." Our longing for home really just boils down to our longing to be with Christ in a perfect place. Nothing on earth is every going to fill this longing for heaven. If I get a house, then eventually I will want a larger house... and on and on and on.

There are a multitude of songs that talk about the mansions, Christ is building for us in glory. I don't really think I want a mansion. I just want a little cottage that is all my own. I want lots of flowers that I don't have to plant or water with magnolia and dogwood trees. I also want hydrangea bushes outside. My perfect house would also have a reading room with built in bookshelves and a comfortable window seat so that I can sit and read in the sun. I also want rocking chairs and a swing on my front porch!