By Candra Barnett, Missionary to Romania

A few years ago on furlough, I was walking through Conway’s historic district, admiring some of the old, well-kept houses with beautiful yards full of giant flowering bushes and trees. In my heart welled up a desire that I unsuccessfully tried to ignore.  I wanted a house and a beautiful yard with bushes so huge they obviously were planted long ago. I thought about planting such bushes in my own yard back in Romania in front of my rented duplex, but I quickly came to the realization that such bushes take years to get to the size I admired, and we were moving in just a few short months. 

I absently wondered, “Will I ever live in a place long enough to grow giant bushes and trees in the yard?” It is a question I’ve pondered before. I had just moved into my little duplex a few months prior, knowing I would be moving to a new area soon. Since that walk, I moved two more times on the mission field. I have often asked myself, “Just how much is it wise to invest here?” 

Such a small, silly desire, for giant bushes, and yet it made me think about the subject of home. This subject always comes to mind when I’m in the States on furlough. Maybe because it’s in America that I’m the most confused about where exactly that is. People keep asking me, “When are you going home?” I can do nothing but stare at them with a vacant expression and wonder, “What do they mean exactly by home? Home to the mission house I’m staying in while I’m on furlough? Home to my parents’ house? Home to Romania? Where is home?” For a missionary, “home” can become a tricky subject. I’ve been known to call multiple places home at the same time, even in the same sentence! 

But all this talk of home begs this question: “Is it right for us to invest in places called homes that are all temporary anyway?” The beginning chords to “This World is Not My Home” start to play through my head. Is that true? Is that a biblical idea or just a song? What does Scripture have to say about our home? Abraham is praised in Hebrews for leaving his home and wandering in a place he did not know, for he sought a greater city (Hebrews 11). Again and again through Scripture we see this picture, that Christians are sojourners and exiles headed to a better place (1 Peter 2:11-12). 

And yet, I am also reminded of the exiles in Jeremiah who were exhorted to “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce…seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:5,7). 

Jeremiah was letting the exiles know they would be there a while, that they should get comfortable and invest where they are. So as exiles, some of us need to get comfortable. We may be in a town or city for some time here on this earth. Others, like Abraham, may never settle in one place for very long. 

 So where is our security in all this uncertainty? As always, in Jesus, who goes to prepare a place for us. And he prepares a place much better than I ever could. The giant flower bushes I drooled over will look like dandelions one day next to the home prepared for me. 

But in the meantime, when this snow thaws, I’m planting rose bushes. Even if I never see them reach their full potential. Even if I have to move and someone else gets to enjoy their flowers. After all, even wandering Abraham planted trees under whose shade he would never sit (Genesis 21:33). So I will seek the welfare of this city until God calls me to the next one. Because ultimately, I am heading to “a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).