Homesickness

One of the authors I have enjoyed immensely over the years is Frederick Buechner. He is an ordained Presbyterian minister and he has a way of writing about life and faith that is poignant, at times funny, and takes one to different depths depending upon the subject. One of his books that I recently picked up from my shelf again is “The Longing for Home.” In it he talks about our childhood “home” and how for each of us it is different depending upon where we most felt at home. If our parents didn’t provide a stable and warm home, maybe it was our grandparents or our best friend’s home. Regardless, he describes how we spend a great deal of our lives feeling homesick for either the home we had or the home we never had and for which we still long.
At some point in our lives, however, we realize we have reached an age where there is no going back and at that point our longing takes on a different character. We long to be wholly loved and whole and our longing becomes a longing for an eternal home. In our culture in the US, we have made an enemy of death rather than a friend so we rarely talk about our eternal longing. Have you ever asked someone who is closer to the end of their life than to the beginning what they long for in death? For people who spend their lives taking faith seriously, we skirt the issue of death altogether perhaps because there is no one living who has experience!
When I was a child I heard about the mansions, the streets made out of gold, and the harps that played music constantly (I actually worried about that one a bit since I wasn’t sure how I could listen to harp music 24/7). Do I still believe in that picture? Do you? If not, what is your vision for what comes after death?
The people I have met over the years who are not afraid of death are also people who are living life to the fullest. We all have longings. Imagine how incredible it would be for the oldest generation to share with the younger generations their longings for what comes next. None of us can ever be “right” about what comes next since there is no way to verify so why not share our longing and our visions with one another? Maybe if we do we will all journey in that direction more gracefully.