God Is Our Home
Friday, October 16, 2026
The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
—Maya Angelou
Historian Diana Butler Bass emphasizes the importance of “home” in Scripture and different faith traditions.
Home is a central theme in the world’s great religions: Jews seeking a homeland with God; Christian proclaiming that God dwells within our hearts; Muslims facing home to pray; Buddhists find a true home in enlightenment…. Human beings build temples to shelter God’s presence, we mark sacred places with shrines, and we bury, float, or burn our dead that they might find their way home to God.
The overarching narrative of the Bible is that of humanity searching for home…. Throughout, a spiritual interplay emerges: not only did God create our earthly home, but God is our home…. It is a powerful story, rich in literary ambiguity—the earth, us, home, and God are almost interchangeable characters in this ancient record of humankind’s aching search to dwell….
Specific stories also relate tales of us, home, and God. Perhaps none does so more beautifully than the book of Ruth. Ruth, a Moabite woman married to a Jew, is widowed. Instead of staying in her own homeland after her husband’s death, she pleads with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to be allowed to accompany her to Israel to find a new home:
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die—
there will I be buried (Ruth 1:16–17)
Home is the relationship between two people, a physical place, and God. This is sacred dwelling. [1]
Butler Bass describes how God dwells with and in us:
Theistic faiths insist that ultimately God is our home. God dwells with us, and we in God. In Judaism, one way of referring to God is shekhinah, meaning the dwelling or settling of the Divine Presence, a word that also is used to describe the nesting of birds. The ancient Hebrew prophet Isaiah spoke of Immanuel, “God with us,” as the promise of shelter and safety for Israel, one of the names that Christians later adopted for Jesus….
The word “dwell” is related to an Old English word for “heresy” or “madness.” Perhaps it is a sort of insanity to believe that God dwells with us. If so, the madness is the long-lingering hope of the human race, the dream to dwell. It is not only a hope, however; it is also hard work, this effort to shelter our souls. Perhaps making a home is both a divine madness and a human one. Ultimately, physical houses go to ruin, but home is an ongoing spiritual promise….
Home, a holy habitation, a sacred space. We do not often stop to consider where we dwell, much less how it shapes us to move about in the world, for either good or ill. But somehow we keep searching for home, looking for a safe haven to reside and return.
References:
[1] Diana Butler Bass, Grounded: Finding God in the World; A Spiritual Revolution (HarperOne, 2015), 169, 170.
[2] Butler Bass, Grounded, 190, 191, 192.
Image credit and inspiration: Andrew Wong, untitled (detail), 2022, photo, Penang, Malaysia. Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. The inner sanctum is always with us, shedding light on who we are, our journey with and to the divine.
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John Chaffee – Five on Friday
1.
“No medicine is more valuable, none more efficacious, none better suited to the cure of all our temporal ills than a friend to whom we may turn for consolation in time of trouble, and with whom we may share our happiness in time of joy.”
– Aelred of Rievaulx, 12th Century Cistercian Monk
My life has absolutely been enriched and made significantly better by having good friends. Adulthood means you may see those friends less often, but it is always great to reconnect and talk about what we both agree matters most.
2.
“If one completes the journey to one’s heart, one will find oneself in the heart of everyone else.”
– Thomas Keating, Trappist Monk
A common thread in the Christian mystical tradition seems to be the solidarity one feels toward the rest of humanity.
If we look deep enough into ourselves, we will see everyone else, and if we look deep enough into everyone else, we will find ourselves.
In our world today, compassion, empathy, and connection seem increasingly undervalued as we spend more and more time in front of screens. I found it hard to believe that, several months ago, empathy was called a “sin.”
I think the highest and most mature interpretations of the world’s religions will focus on recognizing one another’s shared humanity.
3.
“The Church is an army of peace which sheds no blood.”
– Clement of Alexandria, 2nd-Century Catechetical Teacher
The early Church actually patterned its early structures after the Roman military.
From lay people to deacons to priests to archpriests to bishops to archbishops and finally to the Pope, the hierarchy of the early Church (and many denominations now) resembled that of the Roman military. The reason for that was to regionalize who was in charge of which areas.
The major difference, though, was the tactics. The Roman Empire used violence and intimidation to achieve its goals. The early Church, on the other hand, was to use the tools we now call the Fruit of the Spirit…
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Self-Control
The early Church saw itself as in the midst of a spiritual battle for mankind’s soul. In its day, it saw the way that society valued people according to their utility, the way that it mistreated the poor, the widow, and the orphan, and how it demonized the homeless and the beggar. If you ask me, it is little wonder why the early Church grew so much; it was a tender refuge for people from a brutal world.
Plus, the paradox of being a “Church militant” that advances its mission through virtues rather than vices? I am sure that made many people scratch their heads in curiosity.
4.
“We remember to change the oil in our cars, change the filters in our water dispensers, and change the bag on our vacuums, but we neglect the work of inner housecleaning. We’re unfamiliar with the vast territory of our hearts.”
– Chuck DeGroat, Seminary Professor and Author
Chuck has a new book on character coming out that I am very excited to read.
Here, though, he makes a simple analogy: we take better care of our cars, filters, and vacuums than our own inner landscape.
If our souls had a “check engine light,” we might be more inclined to work on it and give it regular checkups. Without such a light, we are prone to going too long without working on ourselves.
I guess it is possible that irritability, sadness, depression, loneliness, and the like are all warning signs that we often overlook or simply push through by means of force of effort. Obviously, this isn’t good, but we may feel like we have to keep pushing no matter what.
It is my opinion, but I think some church folk keep counseling or therapy at a distance because there’s a turf war over who does the internal healing. Is it spirituality or is it psychology?
Or could it be both?
5.
“We do not have to live in a monastery to find our way into the deep healing and liberation that monastic life nurtures and protects.”
– Jim Finley, Former Monk Turned Psychotherapist
Years ago, I heard Jim Finley say that monastery life is finely tuned to cultivate the inner experience of God through all that one does. Whether you’re raking leaves, working in the kitchen, helping visitors, praying, or serving, it doesn’t matter; all of life can be done in a way that keeps God’s presence very apparent.
I liked that.
It makes me wonder how I might better craft and fine-tune my own life so I can experience God’s presence more fully in the midst of everything. (This makes me think of Brother Lawrence’s life.)
I already deactivated social media, and I already live a rather slow pace of life… Perhaps the next step is minimalism: giving away the “stuff” that clutters and unnecessarily fills life?
Any suggestions?
