At the heart of exile is a longing to come home again. What does this mean for us in this world? Home may be a place, a house we love, in a landscape we love, with a community who cares for us. It may be a more ethereal kind of reality, like a feeling we have when we experience complete acceptance by others. Or the feeling we have when we walk along the seashore or in a woodland and feel ourselves aligned with God’s creation and its pulsing aliveness. Being at home indicates a state of ease, of feeling welcome, of belonging.
Ultimately it is the experience of embracing our wounds and allowing them to be a portal into our service to the wider community. Our broken places are the source of new life when we allow our healing journeys to bring us into deeper compassion for others who suffer. Jesus witnessed to this reality in many ways.
Image: Christ on the Mount of Olives, Paul Gauguin, 1889
