“You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” These are the often quoted words of St Augustine. There is a longing in the human heart to come home. It is a longing for God who is the fulfilment of our hearts’ desires.
The longing in the human heart to come home is a longing to be held in the tender embrace of God, the Father of Jesus. It is a longing to live in the Father’s house. It is a longing for a room in the Father’s house, a room of our own where we can experience our belovedness, be ourselves and find peace. Jesus knows the longing we have inside us. This is why he tells us, “There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I go now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too” (John 14: 2-3).
The journey through life is the journey home. But we cannot make the journey home alone; we are not meant to make the journey home alone. We need the companionship of other people. Without the companionship of other people we wither and die inside, emotionally and spiritually. The idea that the Christian journey is a private one is false thinking. Jesus gathered companions around him and so must we. We go to God with and through other people.
On the journey home we also need the companionship of Jesus. Jesus walks the road of life with us. He is the invisible companion of our life’s journey. He helps us find our way home. This is what Jesus means when he says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John: 14:6). To call Jesus our Saviour is to accept that we need his help and guidance to find our way home to the Father’s house. The heart’s journey home is a journey best made in the company of Jesus.