These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town … - Nehemiah 7:6

 Today's Scripture Reading (October 5, 2020): Nehemiah 7

William C. Faulkner asked the question. “How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home?” How often indeed. In the mobile society in which we live, home sometimes almost seems to be a lost concept in our lives. In my experience, home has changed from place to place several times. But home has not always been where I lived. Sometimes it was the place where I dreamed of being as I listened to the rain falling on my roof. But, there were the lucky times when home and the place where I lived were found in the same location. For the past twenty years, home has been in a place I never dreamt I would have called home when I was younger. But I was wrong. It is home.

Home is more about people than it is about a place. It is also about security; home is always a place where we feel safe, and we know that, when we are home, someone has our back. Home is always an extraordinary place, and it is always a place where we long to be and spend our time.

The return to Jerusalem was an important event in the history of Israel. Still, out of every hundred people taken to Babylon in exile, only two returned to the land of their ancestors during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The others had made homes in the places where they had been forced to move. They were no longer refugees in a strange land; they were stakeholders in their communities. When the rain fell on their roofs, they did not dream of what it would be like to be home; they were already home.

So, Nehemiah gives us a list of the two percent who had dared to return home. While most of the names might mean very little to us, every person mentioned was essential to God and deserved to be remembered. These people are the pioneers who were willing to go into a voluntary exile once again so that they can redevelop the land that had been given to their ancestors. These few who came to Jerusalem were not going home; they were leaving the comfort of the lives that they had built in their diaspora, willing to sacrifice like their ancestors to return to Jerusalem and reconstruct the city and the nation. They were willing to endure hardship and discomfort because accomplishing the will of God was more important. But as they lived in Jerusalem, there would be moments when the rain would fall, and they would dream of home.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 8