Homesick (hope)
a poem written by: rev. sarah speed | sanctifiedart.org
based on Luke 21:25-36
How do you describe homesickness to a child?
You don’t.
They know.
Children know the feeling of being away from home.
It’s fear, dipped in loneliness,
that “What if I’ve been forgotten?” sonnet,
or the “What if I can’t go back?” refrain.
Even a healthy, scrubbed-clean,
showered-with-love child
knows the longing of home.
But if I had to.
If I had to describe
that aching feeling, I would say:
“Homesickness is when longing and grief
wrap themselves around you like a blanket.
It’s the door to comfort thrown open.
It’s an eye on the horizon for what could be
and the only way out is to keep walking,
to keep dreaming,
to keep looking
for signs that will point you back home.”
And if you tell that to a child,
you just may realize
that a part of your spirit
has shoes on
and has always been walking,
always been dreaming,
always been looking
for the home that could be.
The door to comfort has been blown open.
Tell God I’m homesick.
I’m on my way.
*
Have you ever been homesick?
Where did you feel that in your body?
What did you miss and long for most?
I confess that I am homesick for the place where my soul finds rest, where my spirit breathes freely, where my body releases tension, and I am free.
Where is that place for you? What does it feel like when you are there? How will you know when you arrive?
What do you think being homesick and wanting to be “close to home” have to do with Advent?
Have you told God about your homesickness?
Click here to access the devotional booklet where this poem originated. Dive into the poems and prayers and activities in the booklet. Dream about home. Ask God what it will take for you to feel close to home. Pray that you find home this Advent – in new ways. In deeper ways. (For copyright reasons, please do not share the link with anyone outside of the Caldwell community.)
Plan to join us in worship throughout Advent so that we can explore these questions and topics together.
Our annual Blue Christmas service will take place next Thursday, December 8th, at 7 pm, in Hope Hall. We will gather together that night to honor our homesickness, our weariness, our blue moments, and our longing for the light of Jesus to shine on us anew.
Praying that you will find home – and hope – this Advent season,
Gail