Wrapping up a semester of achieved dreams, lasting memories and opportunities of a lifetime is the point at which I’m currently finding myself. I could sing the praises of the study abroad experience for days, but I’ll hold back and merely say this: past the piles of memories, there are lots of lessons that I’ve learned. I certainly didn’t come abroad to “find myself,” but there’s no use in lying and claiming that I didn’t reaffirm some things that I probably already knew deep down.
In short, there’s no substitute for shopping days with Mom, a huge hug from Dad, or a home-cooked meal. Living out of a backpack is feasible, at least for a little while. Not everyone in this world is as good-intentioned as the ones back home in Midwestern Suburbia, and iPhones can get stolen right under your nose. Navigating foreign cities, airport and languages can be done with a little confidence and a lot of hand gestures.
It really is the little things that make it all worthwhile; some of my most treasured memories of abroad are things that might not sound like much to other people. And because of that, comparing experiences and trips is almost impossible and most definitely not worth it in the end. The list goes on and on, but the lesson that sticks with me the most strikes a deeper chord.
Finding your place in a brand new place can be tough. In the first few weeks, it wasn’t clear whether I’d ever get used to eating dinner at 9 p.m. or living via the metro system. But eventually, the time rolls past and you finally look around to realize that you really have been able to make a new sort of home abroad.
It’s not the kind of home I was used to, but rather, the kind that includes the bare essentials: yourself, a few close friends and your God. After all, like the tacky plaque hanging on the wall often reads, “Home is where the heart is.” And the good news is that if you let Him, God is never not present in your heart.
Poet and author Maya Angelou wisely observed the following: “The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
I can’t help but look at this and be certain that its most accurate application is for our home that exists in the arms of God. After all, isn’t that about the only place where we are truly and completely free of all judgment, questioning and worry?
It seems my argument then, if I had one, would be that God is home. Embracing God’s love is like a one-way ticket to the place where we can feel peace and certainty.
Maybe you’re feeling literally displaced because of a seven-hour time difference that lies between you and your physical home, or maybe you’re back in the States and just want some peace and quiet because your friends are annoying you and final projects and tests are accumulating. Either way, home is only a short trip away.
It takes a moment, a single prayer, to feel the loving warmth and peace of true comfort in God.
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” 1 John 4:16
