I’ve been meditating on something these days. About Jesus and His amazing walk on earth. How He touched the untouched and empathized with the neglected. How He experienced frailty and anguish and the ache of being hurt by those He created. How He was often misunderstood and maligned. How He exercised utter humility, being God but being treated like a common man. Oh, how I love Jesus who walked the same dusty earth I’ve dirtied my toes on.

I’ve felt a longing for home, not a sentimental need for the familiar, but a deep longing for the home God meant for us to have. A place where love abounds. A place where loneliness ebbs away like a receding tide. Randy Alcorn says we are made for a place and a person. The place is heaven; the person is Jesus. On this earth, I will not have heaven. Glimpses of it peek through the matrix of this darkened world, but even so, I’ve come to realize my true home, at least on this earth, is in the arms of the One who went through hell for me.

And finally to my meandering meditations: If we are lonely or despairing, consider that Jesus was far more. He, unstained by ANY sin, felt the weight of every wicked thought and act upon His holy shoulders. Because of His sacrifice on the cross and willingness to bear the weight of humanity’s sin, I NEVER have to experience utter loneliness because now the Holy Spirit can always be with me. Wow. Consider that Jesus experienced what we will never have to: separation from the Father. For one sacred, terrible moment, as Jesus cloaked Himself in our rags, the Father turned His holy and loving face away. For one agony, the Trinity lost fellowship. Sin was so hated by God the Father that He excruciated Himself by pulling away from His son who wore our sin. I can’t fathom that. I can’t understand it. Jesus went through utter dark loneliness in that moment so that I never would have to.

So, we humans struggle. We eke out a living. We live. We eat. We get sick. We blame. We try to make sense of this world. And we forget Jesus. He experienced more pain than we ever will. And He comes to our help because He is the epitome of the Empathetic God. “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).

I love Jesus. I’m enamored by Him. I’m grateful He sits on a throne of grace. I’m dazzled that He understands my own loneliness, joy, perplexities and humor because He has walked where I walk today–on this needy, fallen earth among needy, fallen people.

Jesus, You are my home.