Homesickness. We have all experienced it at one time or another. Whether we were a kid away at camp for the first time or a freshman in college during that first pivotal semester, the pain of missing the comfortable and familiar is known to all.

As the years roll by, we become homesick for the homes and familiar places of our childhood that we can’t really visit anymore, because too much had changed, and too many of the familiar faces are gone forever. Some fight the nostalgia and some indulge it, but there is no denying that all experience it in some way.

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.

Psalm 137:1 ESV

We can, therefore, understand the tug at the hearts of the Hebrews in captivity in Babylon those very many centuries ago. They longed for their homeland and their familiar sights and ways. Most knew they would not live long enough to see the return, and could only hope to keep the longing alive in the hearts of later generations.

The Hebrew people have long maintained the identity of Jerusalem as their hometown and Israel as their native land. This longing survived the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. and their diaspora throughout the world. It would be centuries before they would have the opportunity to return to their land.

But there is a greater longing in the hearts of all believers. No earthly home will ever quench our true homesickness. In Hebrews 11 we read of the great exemplars of faith in the Bible:

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, ESV)

No wonder homesickness is such a familiar feeling!

This longing is built into us all, and missing what we think of as home is just a shadow of the true hope and desire. We look forward to a New Jerusalem and a heavenly home that will heal all the hurt and longings of our hearts. The beloved faces of those we miss will be there with us, and we will gaze upon the most beloved face of all – Jesus – and know that we are truly home!