LEADER TIMES WEEKEND RELIGION ARTICLE FOR
August 6, 2016 by William H. Scarle, Jr. 813-835-0129
Searching for Home
“Finding Dori” was a pleasant movie experience shared with family last weekend. Like its predecessor, “Finding Nemo,” it struck a family healthy theme and was up to the ingenious production techniques of Pixar.
What impressed me, however, was that the theme tapped into one of the basic longings of humanity, the need to be home. Home is where we feel secure. Home is where we are loved and cared for. Home is where we are not alone. All these overtures were touched on in the story of Dori’s quest to get back home.
There is a larger picture that fits this theme which is developed in the early chapters of Genesis. The observation has been made often that the story of creation is not a scientific treatise. God creates a home for the sea creatures before he actually creates them. The arrangement was good. God created the land and its vegetation as a home for the land dwellers before he brought them into being. God placed Adam in a garden, a home, and it was very good. Mankind was created to be at home in the universe. God was present in the garden and in fellowship with Adam. But, something happened.
When Adam failed to trust God there was a breach. The first couple was sent out of the garden and the story of redemption or restoration begins.
Abel, one of the sons of Adam and Eve, seems to have been comfortable in the world God created. His relationship with God had been restored and he was offering an appropriate sacrifice. Such was not the case for Cain. He did not feel at home. He ended up killing his brother and became a fugitive and wanderer on the earth.
I think that today there are many who are not at home in the world God created, primarily because they do not know the Creator. Granted, the world has been marred by sin, but it still has the quality of home when the presence of the Creator is recognized. Dori found home be following the sea shells laid down by her parents to lead the way. Jesus said “I am the way.” God has marked the way back.
The familiar Babcock hymn reads:
“This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears, All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father’s world, I rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas; His hand the wonders wrought.
“This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet. This is my Father’s world, The battle is not done; Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven be one.”
There will be a new heaven and a new earth someday. In the meanwhile home is life lived in fellowship with the Father in the world he created for us.
(Bill Scarle can be contacted at ravscarle@verizon.net) END-whs