This coming week our family is moving… again. For me that shouldn’t be too much of a big deal. If I counted right this will be the 29th time I’ve changed my accommodation. I should hasten to add that all my 28 previous moves – with the exception of the first move – have all been within the Eastern states of Australia and mainly due to changing circumstances with work; early in life my parent’s work, then my own and more recently, my wife’s work.
But that’s not always the reason why people move, is it? I began my working career in 1960 in a factory where I had a workmate who had also moved a lot. He had migrated from Europe to Australia after the war. The problem was that he found it hard to settle down in his new adopted homeland. After some years he took his family back to Europe but that reminded him of the reason why he had left in the first place. He then figured he might find it easier to settle in New Zealand so he took his family there but that didn’t last long either. I first met him soon after he had travelled back across the ditch to Australia. I lost touch with him after I left the company but I heard from others that he later took his family to Canada. Why is it that some people are so restless? I’d like to think that this workmate was somewhat of an exception but I doubt it. I have often met others who have trouble settling and who always seem to be ready to move on. What makes us human beings like that?
Well, I have a theory. My theory is that our restlessness is due to the fact that this world is not as it should be. We expect things to be better and when they are not there is always a temptation to just move on. The grass always looks greener in the next paddock anyway. The point is that when God created this world He judged it to be good. More than that, He said that it was very good. However, in the Bible there is also that sad story of what we usually call, the fall. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and the fallout of that is something we are still living with today. God made us for the best of all worlds but this world is not like that anymore. So deep within us there is a homesickness for that Eden paradise that we lost. The sad reality of course is that moving to another town, another state or even another country doesn’t really solve our problem. Sure, the grass may indeed be greener in another town or another country – but… we’re still living in the same fallen world whether we are in Canada or Australia; whether in Sydney or in Melbourne. Whenever we move we take that deep-seated restlessness and homesickness with us to our new location.
So what’s the solution? I guess many people just put up with the fact that life on planet earth is less than perfect. Other folk try to drown out their restless homesickness with entertainment or drugs. But there is another option. The Bible tells us that through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God is going to restore this creation. There is a new world coming. Paradise will be restored. And the point is that by faith in Jesus there are people who are living already as citizens of that wonderful restored creation.
In the Bible the book of Hebrews pictures this in a lovely way. It speaks about the great heroes of faith who solved their restlessness by also longing for a better country… but a heavenly one. And then the writer adds some very telling words, “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” I’m hoping and praying that my 29th move will go well. But I’m doing it with the knowledge that my best move is yet to come.
John Westendorp