Release 09 of 12 · November 19, 2026

For When I Am Longing for Home

A homesick heart yearning for heaven

Philippians 3:20–21, Hebrews 11:13–16, Revelation 22:1–5, 2 Corinthians 5:1–5

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For When I Am Longing for Home

Compiled, read, and scored by Beautiful Eulogy.

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The Word ESV

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Philippians 3:20–21

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Hebrews 11:13–16

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
Revelation 22:1–5

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
2 Corinthians 5:1–5

Devotional

Have you ever been homesick for a place you've never been?

It hits at strange times. The end of a really good day, when you should feel full and instead you feel an ache. A song that pulls at something you can't name. A funeral. A wedding. Walking out of a building you loved for the last time. You feel it and you think, something is missing, and I don't know what it is.

I've felt it on stage in front of thousands of people. I've felt it at my own kitchen table. It doesn't go away when things get good. Sometimes that's when it's loudest.

C.S. Lewis said if we have a desire nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. Scripture says it more plainly. "Our citizenship is in heaven." Not will be. Is. Right now, your passport says somewhere else. So of course this place doesn't fit. It was never supposed to.

Hebrews 11 describes the people who figured this out. Abraham. Sarah. The ones who "died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar." I love that. Greeted them. Like you'd wave at someone across a field. They lived in tents on purpose. They could've gone back to Ur. They had the option. But they "desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one." And look at God's response. "God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city."

Prepared. That's the word. It's the same thing Jesus said in the upper room. I go to prepare a place for you. Your homesickness has an address.

Then John sees it. Revelation 22. A river, bright as crystal. A tree with leaves for the healing of the nations. "No longer will there be anything accursed." Think about what that means. No more Genesis 3. No more thorns. No more sweat and death and ground that fights you. And this: "They will see his face." That's the thing the ache has been pointing at your whole life. Not the streets. Not the river. His face.

But here's what makes the longing bearable instead of crushing.

Jesus left home. He was the one citizen of heaven who had every right to stay, and he took on a tent, a body that could groan and bleed and die, and he pitched it among us. He got homesick too. He wept. He sweat blood. And then he went to the cross so that the place he left could become the place you're going. The way home is a person, and he walked the road first.

Paul says we "groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling." So groan. That's allowed. That's holy. The ache isn't a sign something's wrong with your faith. It's a sign your faith is working. "He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee." A guarantee. A down payment. The Spirit in you is the first piece of home arriving early.

So when it hits, at the end of the good day or in the middle of the hard one, don't push it down. Name it. I'm homesick. And then remember where you're going, who's waiting, and whose face you'll see.

You're not lost. You're on your way.