Hometowns & Homesteads

I live in a town of transplants. From the Midwest, from Asia, from subdivisions, we left what we knew and came here to the city by the Bay. Why did we leave the people we know and the places we know and trade them in for new sky and different air? What made us willing to trade known for unknown? What chases the emigrant? Or if not a chasing, more like a calling from beyond the horizon, a pull rather than a push? My heart feels better about pulling. I like to think my present self reached backward to the days before San Francisco and pulled, knowing the joy and the growth and the peace that would come from being a wanderer in a strange land, Abraham seeking a new Canaan. God must have pulled me here. For Him, past, present, and future are one, and He has a funny habit of leading His sons out into the wilderness. When God wants a people, He seems to start by pulling them into a new place, leaving behind familiar routine, customs, lands. By leaving behind their people, they can learn to become His people. I pause here, knowing that in my time away from my homeland, I have inched my closer to becoming God’s people.