Coming Home

Two thousand four hundred.
That is how many miles I have driven in the last nine days. I just got back from a trip home to visit family and friends. It was a week of fun, work, parties, and shenanigans. Oh, and lots of babies. Babies are the new trend. Babies and Pokemon Go. Who knew?!
The weird thing about returning to your hometown, where your family still lives in the same house and most of your friends from the area are still there, is that it feels like home. So, I went home for a visit, but when the visit was over I came back home. How does that work?
I've encountered this phenomenon before. I call it the home-away-from-home complex. No, the land-of-Oz syndrome. That's not it either. How about time-share mentality? Okay, I don't know what to call it, but the crux of the matter is that you live with a sense of having multiple homes. Researchers have yet to discover how this phenomena occurs (says the guy who has done zero research to see if that is even true), but I have a few theories.
My first theory is the spacial imprint theory. The basic idea is that because of various life experiences a location becomes emotionally imprinted on your brain in a way that draws you back time and again. These "home" locations are the geographical stages of primarily fond or formative moments in life. Some times these places take years to imprint while others take only a  moment. I even have friends who have visited other countries for a couple days yet created such fond memories that they continue to live the rest of their lives feeling as though a part of them is meant to go back. Then there are those unfortunate few who, because of life circumstances, are never given the opportunity to develop a fond connection with any location. They go about their lives with no point of connection, and no sense of permanence or home.
Under this theory the sense of multiple homes can be compared to possessing multiple real estate investments.  You have your modest house in the suburbs, your beach home in Santa Cruz, and your penthouse in Manhattan. They are all yours even though you are not always at each location.
My second theory involves parallel dimensions, string theory, and a quasi deja vu sixth sense. I won't go into that here.
My final stab in the dark is the relational connection theory. This hypothesis suggests that it is not the location at all, but the people who make a place feel like home. Similar to the spacial imprint theory, the relational connections are formed through positive or formative experiences. Family tends to be a common theme when defining home because in most situations people are surrounded by family (parents, siblings, cousins, etc.) through many of the most formative years of life. For some people home is defined by friends because those are the people with whom they connected during those pleasant and important moments.
The great thing about this theory is that "home" can be anywhere. It can be confusing and frustrating at times because you can't visit all of "home" in one summer (not on a music teacher's budget anyway). However, "home" eventually comes around to a beautiful conflux of family and friends when we all gather together around the throne of God to praise and adore him. You see, no matter how many "homes" I develop on this world, I will never truly feel as though I have come home until that day when I see my Lord and King and kneel before his throne lifting my voice in worship to the one who created me, rescued me, and gave me eternal life. That is my real home.
Paul reminds us of where we belong when he says, "you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19). At other times Paul describes us as "sojourners" which are people who are just passing through a location as they travel to their final destination. And as he describes how we ought to live among unbelievers he tells us, "our citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20), which is to say that we belong to another country with another law and code and another way of life. Even these frail and flawed bodies are described as "tents"; temporary dwellings which we will one day cast aside as we are given our eternal and glorified bodies.
I hope you will be there on that day. It makes all the difference even in this life. 
Now as I settle back into my comfortable living space and my wonderful community, into this place that I call "home", I can know that even this feeling of coming home is just a shadow of what I will experience on that great and glorious day when I meet my Savior face to face and he tells me, "welcome home."