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Hello, I am a mother of three living with my husband in Africa. I have been blogging for seven years but still find myself very technologically challenged. I make lots of mistakes, but life is a journey. Come join me on the journey!

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Living Like We Are Leaving

We recently returned from a vacation, where we had lots of fun, but we were glad to return “home.” We returned to the place we call home which is where most of our stuff is, and hopefully the rest will be soon, and where our residency visa says we live. Others say our home is the country that issued our passports. “Home” is a term that is not always clear to us. 

In my quiet time this morning, these verses stuck out to me. 
Genesis 47:9.  And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.”
Sojourning, going to another country, wandering as a stranger. Sojourner, a person who resides temporarily in a place. 


Then Facebook reminded me of this quote that I shared a few years ago. 
“A person who feels at home “fits” with his environment....But we don’t fit here. It’s not our environment. There is no harmony, no rightness with our surroundings. Feeling like an exile is simply feeling a fact.”
I did not record the source of the quote, so I cannot give full credit. 
Despite where we reside, none of the options on earth really seem to feel like home. 

Upon returning from vacation, we had to unpack and do laundry. Then we repacked our go bags. What are go bags? They are bags we can grab in the event that the unexpected happens.  From broken feet to cancer diagnosis, we have had to use our bags and been grateful they were already packed. What kind of go bags? We have one bag each that is a backpack. In the backpack, we carry enough clothes and hygienic items for one night. In our carry-ons, we keep enough clothes and hygienic products to last a week. 

Then at Bible study this week, the ladies asked, “what is in our spiritual go bag?”  We need to have what is necessary to live. Our salvation! What about the Fruit of the Spirit? What about scriptures that have been memorized? What basics do we need to survive a day, a week, or longer? Am I packed and ready to live? 

So we live life in a balance. We live in a place where we are strangers, but we make our earthly home here as much as possible. We live like we are staying, but we keep our bags packed in case we have to leave. One day, we will leave this place, whether for our passport county or for our eternal home. 

Staying or going, we are living like we are leaving. 

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