“To your offspring I will give this land.”

— Genesis 12:7

For many people, owning their own home is a great dream and a great blessing. Home ownership allows people to build equity and gain financial security. It also gives them a place to call their own—with private living space and a yard.

The Bible gives us glimpses of humanity’s search for a home. But one thing we soon discover is that our dream home cannot really be the one we build for ourselves. Abram, it seems, had a good life in Harran, where his extended family was living. He had possessions and household servants. He was prosperous and successful.

But Harran could not be his home. “Go . . .” God said, “to the land I will show you.” God led Abram to the land of Canaan and said that his descendants would receive this land. So this would one day be their home. But Abram lived in tents, without a permanent dwelling. He had to learn to wait for God to build the home that he longed for.

Many of us are longing for a place of our own. We learn from the Bible that what we really long for is a place with God: a place where God is present with us, a place where we can worship God and lean on his grace. We cannot build that home with our own efforts, but only by waiting on the work of God in Christ.

Faithful God, we want a place to belong, a place where we can lean on your grace for all we need. Guide us to trust in Jesus, and restore us to our home with you. Amen.