Shelter is often described as one of the basic needs for human life, and one of the four essential elements to survive along with food, water, and air. There’s a publication from NASA on “Human Needs” that states, “Before past explorers set off to find new lands and conquer new worlds, they had to make sure that their basic needs were met. Supplies of food and water were brought on the journey or were gathered along the way. Shelter, such as a tent, was either carried or built to protect explorers from the weather or other dangers.”
Our homes provide a shelter that protects us in a physical way. But throughout the course of our lives we also find homes in a spiritual or emotional sense. These homes are fostered from everything that makes us feel a sense of belonging. This can include family, friends, people we love, favorite places and ways we spend our time, cherished memories and connections to the things around us that fill our lives. As we’re more than just physical beings with a purpose beyond mere survival, this sense of home, safety and belonging impacts how we experience our time on earth.
In an ideal case, our physical home is also our emotional home. Our family and our closest loved ones are where we feel the most safe and our first sense of belonging. As we grow up there are chances to feel a sense of home in addition to or in the place of a former house we lived in.
Think about the places you feel you belong. The people that make you feel at home. Your most treasured surroundings and experiences. That feeling of safety and peace takes time to build. For some, it is many evenings spent perfecting skills on a basketball court. Years pass and they now say they’re at home when they’re playing on that court. For others, it is a friend they’ve shared more secrets with than anyone else, sealed with a hug after every deep conversation. A relationship and trust built over years, they now say that person is their home.
As time goes on, it is easier to trust that what you’ve built is strong enough to last. But one of the painful experiences of life is when we lose the place, person, or set of circumstances where we felt at home and a sense of belonging.
The past few years I have reflected a lot on the fleeting nature of things on earth. I think what is most devastating about this type of loss is not only the thing or person being gone, but also the lost sense of security. In its place you might gain the feeling that nothing will ever be safe again, that yes you can build something else, but you now know everything built is susceptible to crumble and be lost. It’s hard to know what to do with that feeling. I believe God doesn’t want us to live in fear over this, but I also believe that there is truth in that realization. Because we live in a broken world, because this isn’t heaven, there isn’t anything we can build on Earth that cannot fall apart, no matter how safe and strong it seems to us.
A couple months ago I heard this verse in church that was a comforting truth from God:
“For we know that if our earthly dwelling, a tent, should be destroyed, we have a building from God, a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in heaven.”
2 Corinthians 5:1
I love this as a reminder that no matter what we lose on earth, our God has prepared something lasting in heaven. We can lose our physical home, or the feeling of home on Earth, because both are built by the hands and heart of humans, but God has prepared for us a home that cannot be destroyed, a dwelling that is eternal.
It is part of our human nature to cling to earthly things, even the good and cherished homes we find in our lives. Because of this it is devastating to lose the things we love and the loss can make us feel defeated. May we remember in our pain the eternal dwelling God has for us and find comfort in the shelter He has created that will never crumble.