A Place Called Home

Hot air blasted across my face as the glass doors slid open to the evening bustle of Tel Aviv. Families rushed in and out of the busy airport terminal and the holy language of the Jews was being shouted across the row of parked taxi cabs.

My Jewish escort walked me across the crowded street and introduced me to my next point of contact, the driver. He was a lean man with a dark set of short curls on his head. He greeted me with a polite nod and opened the rear door of his black SUV for me. He then took my belongings to the trunk and I planted myself on the seat and fastened the strap across my chest, silently praying that I would get to the hotel safely. At this point, I was wondering what had I gotten myself into. A woman alone in a foreign land set alarms of human trafficking blaring in my head.

The trip to the hotel was for the most part an uneventful drive but every inch that I moved forward into the Holy Land took more faith than I had anticipated.

My husband called my solo trip to Israel a spiritual fasting. At first, I didn't see it that way but after reflecting on his words, I began to agree with him. I left my husband, my children, and everything I ever knew and went across the world to follow my God. My trip to Israel wasn't a vacation but it was me fulfilling my dream to walk where Jesus walked and to touch where he touched. I honestly thought I would never be able to go but in God's goodness and design, He parted the waters for me and flew me 14 hours across the other side of the globe.

And in between all the historical sites, hotels, and delicious food, nothing could compare with the moment when I first laid eyes on Jerusalem. Her limestone houses blanked every slope of the roaming Judean hills. Each building tightly packed next to the other with only the roof tops to provide relief. It was there amongst the city's exotic beauty and sweeping blue sky, that I felt something a kin to a memory. As if I had known this place before.

Jerusalem didn't just feel like home, I was home. And my soul welcomed this rest.

This feeling of home had eluded me my entire life. This restlessness and discontent in my heart was something that I would often sigh about but more often than not, I didn't even know how to express in words the achings of my heart. I often misunderstood it, thinking that if I changed the circumstances of my life, I would find this place called home.

I found it surprising that I would find this feeling of home in Jerusalem considering that some of the fringe sects of Judaism are not exactly thrilled with us Christian pilgrims visiting their sacred walls, and the Muslims tolerate our presence because they hate the Jews more. In all, I'm a total outsider to the country's language, culture, and race...and yet I felt at home. This reasoning in my mind made no sense.

However, as I thought this through, I recalled Revelation 21:2 and how the city of Jerusalem was depicted as coming down out of heaven like a Bride adorned for her husband. A way of saying that Jerusalem is God's beloved city and the inhabitants thereof are his covenant people. Throughout Revelation 21 and 22, the apostle John provides us images of the kingdom to come, in which Christ will reign on earth and restore creation to its former glory. The city of Jerusalem is important because it is important to God and God command John to write it down.

So to circle back to what I was saying. For me, home is the place where you belong. It's the place where you feel at rest and are completely and perfectly loved. Jerusalem encapsulated that idea of home not because the people there loved me and welcomed me with open arms but because He welcomed me.

And I from the bottom of my heart, I most certainly felt welcomed and loved by God.

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Bao Vang is a wife and mom of two amazing daughters. When Bao's not serving her local church, she likes to write and spend time with her family. Bao received her MA in Theological Studies from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and she is currently working on a PhD in Bible Exposition at John W. Rawlings School of Divinity at Liberty University. Bao is also a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Society of Biblical Literature.