For Ladies: Kind Of Homesick
Clista Heintzman
Have you ever felt homesick? Children sometimes feel homesick when they are away at camp or school. I can remember experiencing that ache for home when I stayed with my aunt and uncle in the summertime as a child. As a mother, you have probably received a call from a homesick son or daughter at one time or another. The call usually comes at night---when all is dark and quiet. It is the time the child usually begins to reflect about home and those he or she loves there.
If the Lord wills, our daughter will leave for college this fall. The college she has chosen is a long way from home, and she has expressed concern about homesickness. Her Dad tried to prepare her by saying, “You will most definitely have times when you will be homesick because you will be away from those people and things that are familiar.”
Children are not the only ones who experience homesickness. Adults have these feelings as well. When I visit residents in nursing homes, they almost always say that they would like to go home. My husband’s job requires that he travel overseas. He often tells me, when he calls, that he is ready to come home and that he misses home. Sometimes he yearns to return home even before he leaves for his destination. As wives and mothers, we feel bad when our family members have heartache about being away from home, but we should also feel good that we provide them with a warm and caring environment that causes them to miss it when they are away. Paul wrote that we should love our husbands and our children, be kind, and keep the home. (Titus 2:4-5)
We want what is familiar. We yearn for those things we know, but have you ever been homesick for a place you’ve never been before? I have a CD of hymns that was given to me, and one of my favorites says just those words. “I’m kind of homesick for a country---to which I’ve never been before.” How can we be homesick for heaven when we have never been there? We desire what it holds for us---peace, safety, rest, health, and no sad good-byes.
No one likes the feeling of being homesick. When we are young and want to go home, we can usually find a way to get there. There may come a time, however, when we cannot go back to our earthly home due to circumstances beyond our control. We can, though, always look forward to our eternal home someday if we do what God requires and remain faithful to Him. Our home in heaven will be even better than our home here on earth.
Let’s make plans to go home – a place where we have never been before, but about which we know from our reading of the Bible! -3049 Tyler Highway, Sistersville, WV 26175.