“Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take. Return, Virgin Israel, return to your towns.” (Jeremiah 31:21).

     A man’s dreams, and aspirations, and plans are the bow wave signs of a human heart forever inclined towards a longing for something more. For is it not true that all men dream, and have aspirations, and are filled with a deep longing for something more? And is it not written that out of the heart flow the issues of life? (Proverbs 4:23). In fact, is it not “the heart” of man that urges all men upon a lifelong quest towards finding “true meaning and genuine fulfilment”? And are these not the issues of life? And if so, is it not plain that it is the heart itself that abides as man’s internal compass, a navigation system that tirelessly and relentlessly compels us all onwards unto a place we can all finally call home?

     And of these outward signs of an inward yearning, being the signposts of a heart actively seeking substance, validity, truth, authenticity and life, are these not the “telltale feedback loops” of a humanity that, by definition, is thus therefore “nomadic”? For in the heart’s relentless endeavours of guiding man from where he is to a place he can truly call home, does it not speak of a mankind that is therefore always “on the move”? Which prescribes a humanity that, by its very nature, is forever inclined upon the migratory pilgrimage of finding that one place we can all finally call home?

     And when it comes to man’s heart, does the Father not know this about man’s heart better than anyone else? Is it not written that God alone knows the hearts of all the sons of men? (1 Kings 8:39). Does it not also say that “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart”? (1 Samuel 16:7). And if it is then God who sees not as man sees, and who looks to the heart and who alone knows the heart of man, then when it comes to the likelihood and the ability of the heart in successfully navigating mankind towards that one place we can all call home, would it not be just like the heart of the Father to leave us all signposts and road signs as a homing beacon for setting a trajectory towards that place called home? For did He not say, “Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take. Return, Virgin Israel, return to your towns”? (Jeremiah 31:21). Does this, in fact, not speak firstly of a home that was once ours, for He encourages us to “return”? But more so, does it also not speak of a God and Father who plainly wants His sons and daughters to all find their true home?

     And of this home, has the Son not said that in His Father’s house there are many rooms and if it were not so, would He have told us He has gone to prepare a place for all of us? (John 14:2). And of the great journey from a foreign land to that place of green pastures and still waters, then just like our forefathers before us, who just like the nomadic Abraham long before them, and just like the itinerant Jesus long after them, all migrated as a nomadic company from a land in which they did not belong to where their true home awaited, is it not written in 1 Peter 2:11 that we are all aliens and strangers of this world? Which would imply not only that this is not our home, but that our true home lies elsewhere?

     The true spirit of Christianity is movement. Firstly, from a place of visitation (stranger in a strange land) to a place of habitation (place of citizenship). It is furthermore a movement from a place of being a “outsider” to a place of truly “belonging”. Even more so, it is a movement away from “the stresses of the world” to a place of “genuine rest”. The true spirit of Christianity is the movement away from an “empty existence”, an existence without substance and meaning, to “life” and “life abundantly”. It is a migration, a pilgrimage, a movement from faith to faith, from strength to strength, and from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:16-18). It is a journey from dark to light, from unrighteousness to righteousness. The true spirit of a Christian life is a nomadic life, a life of constantly moving, one of moving steadily and purposefully away from all that is “the fallen nature” towards “the divine nature”. Psalm 84:7 says the true Christian spirit is a movement from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

     Which is towards a place we can all finally call home.