"Seems like forever that my eyes have been denied….Home! I'm dreaming of home. I've been twenty years away from all I ever knew, to return would make my dream come true." (Symphony X, "The Odyssey") This song is based on Homer's Odyssey, which relates the wanderings of Odysseus after the Trojan War. One can only imagine how Odysseus felt when his foot touched the home soil of Ithaca after 20 long years. Words are insufficient to describe it.
It may surprise you, but I have a longing for home as well, and I've been gone for much longer than 20 years. But you will say "You've lived in the same house for 26 years, how can you say you've been away from home for so long?" That's not my home, that's just a house, built of wood and stone, an impermanent structure that accommodates this tent of flesh and blood that my eternal spirit dwells in. "For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened - not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." (2 Corinthians 5:1-4, ESV) This eternal dwelling in heaven, therefore, is my home, and I have been separated from it all the days of my life. There are days when it seems like forever that I've been away, but I know that someday my longing for home will be fulfilled.
When your earthly tent is destroyed, I'm sure you want to go home as well. How do you get there? There's an old saying: "all roads lead to Rome" which means "many paths can take you to the same goal". There are those who believe this is true in spiritual matters, but that is clearly at odds with the Bible. Jesus said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6, ESV) So it's not "all roads lead to Rome" but rather "only one road leads home". There is no gray area: either Jesus is the son of God or he isn't. Reliable witnesses who saw the miracles, heard his teachings, and saw him after the resurrection testify that he is the one and only son of God. To follow him is to take the only road home.
