what is home?

I've been home for winter break for about 24 hours now. I'm looking forward to a few weeks of reading, silence, crafting, watching good movies, seeing good friends, and familiar places and spaces. I was home last weekend too, but spent the past week traveling between my home in Grayslake and my home in Chicago; Bethesda. I spent a few days with friends, adventuring downtown numerous times to ice skate and take pictures, bake, have coffee dates and conversations, and say goodbye for the holidays. 

In the midst of driving from Grayslake to Chicago numerous times in the past week, I've been thinking, what is home? What does it mean to go home? To be home? Who is home? Does home change? Is home a feeling? A mental state? A physical place? A person? Is home even here? And ultimately, where is my home? 

Does anyone else feel the same way? I mean, okay if you're married or settled or my parents or over the age of 30 .. maybe you have a more static posture toward home. But me? I lived out of a suitcase last summer. The summer before that I practically called the house I nannyed home. I call my parent's house home and Bethesda home, even though sometimes neither place feels like it. I've made the drive between Grayslake and Chicago at least 75 times in the past four years, spending various amounts of time in each location; not sure which one is actually home. As I venture into the next chapter of life, I want to have an understanding of home. What is home? Where is my home? 

I read an interesting article on Relevant the other day, and it was particularly pertinent given my desire to explore the feeling and place and person of home. If the season you're currently living is marked by change or transition, by questioning what's next, or if you're curious what it takes to make a home ... I'd encourage you to read the article. The author raises a few interesting points, one of which has been on my heart all week. 

"Like many twentysomethings in transition, I have been vulnerable to emotional and physical displacement, but I have learned that the ache to belong is perfectly aligned with Scripture's description of God's people as rootless travelers, making the journey from Eden to Heaven, from home to home."

I love that. She hit the nail on the head. It's comforting, in a way, to know that the desire to be home ... or as the author put it ... the ache to belong ... is entirely biblical. Lost. Wandering. Traveling. Looking for where we belong. Those stories are written again and again in the bible. Just as God's people traveled through this world, we are traveling from home to home, making our way to the ultimate home in Heaven (that's a whole post coming later this week). 

This week, I'm going to be exploring home through writing, through song, and through idioms like home is where the heart is and make yourself at home and there's no place like home. There may even be a guest post coming. I feel like writing about home and thinking about home is important in light of Christmas coming this weekend. I am drawn back to Jesus making a home on Earth, and what God promises through that. I connect back to the truth that God has promised He will come again. Heaven will come to Earth. Or maybe we will make it to our home in Heaven before that. This fills my heart with anticipation and hope as I ponder the true meaning of home. 

How do you define home?