Our home... our place of belonging

This is perhaps one of the more unusual "names" of God. In a psalm written by Moses, he declares, "Lord Adonai, You have always been our home." The Hebrew word is mā'ôn. It means dwelling place, but not necessarily in the sense of a physical house. It's most often used in the Old Testament to refer to the place where God dwells - occasionally referencing the temple in Jerusalem, but more often referring to heaven, to the "place" where God is at home. It's mentioned a couple of times that God, "from His holy dwelling place," heard the people's prayers.

So when Moses prays, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place through all generations" (Psalm 90: 1) he's not speaking about a specific building; he's speaking about the sense of security and belonging that comes from being in God's presence. If we choose to make God our safe place (Psalm 91: 9) we will not need to fear the dangers that other people fear. We will feel "at home," no matter what our outward circumstances are.

I was very aware of this during the two years (2023 - 2025) that I was without a stable home to live in. I think I moved 14 times during that season, taking my dog, cat and personal belongings with me in my little car. Sometimes I didn't know where I was going to be living the following week, but I knew that God's presence was constant and that He alone could give a true sense of home. 

It's well known that Jesus, during His three years of itinerant ministry said, "The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." (Luke 9: 58) But being without a permanent home doesn't mean that you're truly "homeless." Jesus demonstrated what it means to live life with the awareness that the Father Himself is the home where we belong.

And so another psalmist, simply described as "an old man," prays in Psalm 71: 3, "Lord, be my mā'ôn, my true home, because You are my refuge and safe place." What a difference it makes when God is the place where we really feel at home.