Gypsies

Crashing in our worship pastor’s basement isn’t exactly my ideal living situation. It’s been over a week and we still have no concrete timeline pertaining to our occupancy/closing on our new place.

We are in between homes; wanderers, strangers, nomads. Like the Romani people (minus the fortune telling) who lived as wanderers making a living as seasonal workers and itinerant traders, we are doing the best we can with what we’ve got. Our stay is temporary, yet without an end in sight. Our belongings are only what we can transport in suitcases, and our family is mobile.

In a way, it’s thrilling. We have no commitments, no tethers (well, aside from my husband’s job.) But at the same time, each morning I wake up to someone else’s footsteps upstairs, or make breakfast in someone else’s kitchen, and sleep on someone else’s bed at night, I’m reminded of my status as a wanderer.

I don’t belong here. Physically or spiritually. My home is with Christ Jesus in the heavenly realms. 

Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.’

-Luke 9:58

I suppose that when my life mirrors that of my Lord I should not be surprised but rather, rejoice that I share in his sufferings. And I do; I count myself honored to be in the company of my Lord and Savior.

The thing to remember is that the world in which I live has not yet been perfected. But as Mike Goldsworthy (1) points out, God’s kingdom is present in the places and lives of people who are living according to and carrying out his will.

All of the wandering of the Hebrew people, all of their exile, all of their displacement was to point them to God and create a dependency on Him to provide for them. They were strangers in a land that did not belong to them. I can relate. But the Bible tells the story of the promised land and leading Israel to their own land. More than that, it tells the story of God and how He made it possible for all mankind to live securely both now and for eternity through Christ Jesus.

Holding on to that truth and the hope it brings, I find my rest in Christ alone, especially in this time of restless wandering.

(1) Mike Goldsworthy, The Kingdom of God: Already but not yet.  Faithlife Study Bible app