What Is Your Home?

I’m not worth it, you see | For I’m the type of boy who is always on the roam | Wherever I lay my hat that’s my home…

Paul Young turned this old Marvin Gaye song into a hit in 1983. He sings to the girl who loves him that he’s not going to settle down with her.

Making a home is a tricky business. A house is not a home if you can’t be yourself there. A workplace is not a home – home is where you go back to after work. A home is where you find comfort. And a home, Paul Young warns his girl, needs security. I think that’s why we spend so much on a house.

Is a house necessary for a home? Moses the man of God was a Hebrew in Egypt, a princess’s foster-son. He spent forty years in exile droving sheep across Midian. He spent another forty droving Israel around the wilderness and he died outside the promised land.

Lord, you have been our dwelling-place throughout all generations. (Psalm 90:1)

What gave Moses security and comfort, what he went back to at the end of a long day, where he could be himself, was his relationship with God.

Who do you trust enough to be yourself with them? What do you need at the end of a long day of dealing with the world? Who can comfort you? Who offers true lasting security?

Jesus said, ‘In my Father’s house are many rooms… I am going there to prepare a place for you.’  (John 14:2)

Alan Wood