Barnes writes stirringly about the need for home. He cities many studies that show the rootlessness of our contemporary society and he offers anecdotal examples of our wanderlust. Barnes explains that he experienced this collective craving among the members of his congregation while serving as a pastor in our nation’s capital, often a way station for those who serve for a time in government. Everyone was from somewhere else and spoke of that somewhere else as “home.” He argues that most congregations will have this same challenge: many church members who long for a place that is far away and days that are long post, which they think of as their home.
Barnes reminds us that our home is not Duluth or Pomona or wherever else we were born, but rather home is “… the place where we were created to live from eternity to eternity … .” Further, Barnes tells us that “When God created humanity, it wasn’t until he breathed the holy ruauch into the nostrils of Adam that he became a living being” (both p. 33).
Not only is our rightful place with God, but God is the source of all that we are. We have come from God, we are going toward God: this is what it is to be human. Christians are the people who recognize this truth and who have as their companion on the journey God in the person of Jesus Christ.
