By: Elizabeth Haarberg

Finding the Heavenly Nest.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

We are comfortable in our homes, church buildings, and communities, but in that comfort we can get lulled into a contentedness that looks like peace but can actually be quite dangerous to our spiritual life.

Once Jesus set out from home and began ministering, he didn’t have a home or a church home. He mostly ministered in other people’s homes, in fields, and in the common areas where people did chores and worked. This made Him hard to label or identify from a societal perspective. Was He a Jew? Yes, He was born a Jew, but He challenged the leadership of the traditional Jewish culture. So was He still considered a subscribing Jew? Where is his residence if He doesn’t live in a home?

“And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Luke 9:59 English Standard Version

What does all this mean for us? Do we need to sell our homes? Do we need to revoke our church membership? Maybe. But possibly the bigger question for us is in what do we put our hope? Is it in the comfort we surround ourselves with or do we put our hope in Jesus? Where is our true home? Self-examination of our comfort is a healthy way to determine if we are in the place that provides the most spiritual growth possible in that moment. 

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 English Standard Version

If God created us in His image and Jesus was the example given to us on how we should live, examining our attachment to the things of this world is a healthy way to move toward living like Jesus.

There really is nothing wrong with living in a nice house, having nice things and belonging to a church, but if those things create a wall or barrier in becoming more like Jesus, the examination of where they belong in our life is a healthy way to reset our priorities.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado