In Exodus chapter 2, we see that Moses just doesn’t fit in. He’s a Hebrew by birth but was raised as an Egyptian, but couldn’t feel like he belonged. When he tried to identify with the Hebrew children by defending them against the Egyptians, they rejected him and Moses ended up fleeing for his life. He ends up in the desert of Midia. He marries Zipporah and she gives him a son. He names his son, Gershom, which means “stranger or sojourner or alien.” Moses is saying “I wish I had a place where I belonged.” Or, “I wish I had a home.” How do I know that he is saying that? Because when Hebrews 11 tells us about Moses and others it says that they all “acknowedged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” It goes on to say “people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.”

I have felt that way, haven’t you? I’m always on the outside looking in. Max Lucado writes that it “Doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to live outside. It’s not God’s plan for your heart to roam as a Bedouin. God wants you to move in out of the cold and live … with him. Under his roof there is space available. At his table a plate is set. In his living room a wingback chair is reserved just for you. And he’d like you to take up residence in his house. Why would he want you to share his home? Simple, he’s your Father.

Moses knew this. In the Psalm he wrote years later wandering with the Israelites in the wilderness, Psalm 90:1, he says, “Lord, you have been our home since the beginning.”

Welcome home!