Finding Home

For all who know the security of home—in all its iterations—and for those who don’t, finding home is complicated. Home always is characterized by joy and sorrow, grief and gladness, the realities of complicated lives. What is it like to flee the horrors of war as a refugee in search of home? When daily life is unbearable, what exactly does home mean? How do we learn to be at home in our bodies, at home with ourselves? What does it mean to be made in the likeness of the Holy One? Can we find home in the company of strangers and how do we reclaim our earth home? So many images swim just below the surface of my memory, all the houses where I came to know home. It takes little to retrieve them—a shared story, the pungent smell of tide flats, the sound of rain on a tin roof. But home, of course, is much more than houses. These reflections invite readers to explore identity, the importance of rootedness, discovering home away from home, what it means to be home for one another. Finding home—literally and metaphorically—is challenging.

Julie K. Aageson has served as a resource specialist and writer for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. For a decade, she wrote a monthly column for the ELCA magazine, GATHER. Her books include One Hope: Re-Membering the Body of Christ (co-author); Benedictions: 26 Reflections; Holy Ground: An Alphabet of Prayer; and Finding Home.