A Face to Call Home —John Mayer

It's been a month now,

and I still don't feel at home.

Since I have been "home" for the summer,

(again- it's been about a month now)
a simple message has been stressed to me.
He has been giving me the most gentle and simple command I have yet to receive.

"Seek my face"

I'm an architect
Of days that haven't happened yet
I can't believe a month is all it's been

Well, how appropriate.

Lately, many have been talking about how fast the summer has gone by.

However, back when the one-month mark came around, 

you would have found me singing with John...

I can't believe a month is all it's been.

I have been trying to get comfortable here,

trying to adjust and "make myself at home" 

in the house that has always felt like home before-

but I can't.

I can't seem to get comfortable.

I can't seem to say that I feel like I am even home at all.

Thus, I have begun to map out the days ahead.

I have come very far from "numbering my days."

So, surely my heart has not been growing any wiser... (Psalm 90:12).

Instead, I simply keep hoping that with each "tomorrow" I might be able to snuggle in,

sigh deep with that special relief home is supposed to bring,

and rest.

That tomorrow has yet to come. 

In fact, I felt this way back at school

and I thought the flight from Texas to Illinois might do the trick.

It didn't.

I have already begun to trick myself into believing that,

now the flight right back to Texas might bring sensations of home to my bones.

Truth is, 

It won't.

Thankfully, two of my favorite men,

Jesus & John,

have been helping me unwrap the reason for this deep-seated discomfort.

You know my paper heart
The one I filled with pencil marks

John starts with the heart, 
so I guess I better start there as well, 
considering that's always where Jesus starts anyway.

"O Lord, you have searched me and known me!" Psalm 139:1

He knows the condition of my heart. 
He knows the damage done even though I knew He warned me: "Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of all life" (Proverbs 4:23). 
Instead, in more ways than one, I've filled my paper heart with pencil marks.

And He knows them all.

I think I might've gone and inked you in.

This is a totally different mark. 
The moment, in whatever unique way He wrote your story, 
He made His mark on your heart.
After scribbling all over, making quite the mess, 
He stole the pencil from us and, with His love, 
laid down our restless hand.
Then, in this moment, if we could only see, 
we would watch Him, by His Holy Spirit, 
pick up His pen and write His name 
right in the center of our hearts. 

"It's in Christ that you, 
once you heard the truth and believed it

(this Message of your salvation),

found yourselves home free—
signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit.

This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming,

a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us,

a praising and glorious life. " Ephesians 1:13-14 (MSG)

Along with writing His name on our hearts by the Holy Spirit, 
the Spirit also grew His roots.
He became the vine of our lives, 
and we became the branches. 
Then...

Little by little, inch by inch
We built a yard with a garden in the middle of it
It ain't much but it's a start
You got me swaying right along to the song in your heart

And just like that, in that same moment,
a garden is carefully laid down in our hearts,
and God becomes Our Gardener.
He is the sower of everything good in our lives: 
everything fresh, new and beautiful in our gardens.
Knowing this, we can rest.
Now that we are found in Him,
and He has found His way around the garden of our hearts,
we can rest.
We can rest in knowing that He is at work within us,
and surely, He will bring it to a beautiful and perfect completion (Philippians 1:6).

"I am the true vine 
and my Father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away,

and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, 
that it may bear more fruit...

I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him,

he it is that bears much fruit,

for apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:1-2,5
---

"I, the Lord, am its keeper;

every moment I water it.

I guard it day and night

so that no one may harm it." Isaiah 27:3

This is not just any garden. 
This garden is a place of precious purity: a sacred place.
This garden belongs to two, and two only: God and you.
By the Holy Spirit, our garden is guarded,
and little by little, every moment,
it is watered by this same Spirit.

"Jesus said '...Whoever believes in me, 
as the Scripture has said,

streams of living water 
will flow from within him." John 7:37, 38

But, we receive something more precious 
than anything that will be grown in this garden.
John saves the best possession for last.

And a face to call home
A face to call home
You got a face to call home

His face.

No matter how beautiful the garden may become,
if we lose sight of the face of the Gardener,
we lose sight of everything.
If we can no longer identify Him,
we have lost our identity.

His face is who He is. And He is Everything.
This is the answer to our vagabond behavior.
We have a face to call home. Just One.

"A scribe came up and said to him, 
"teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."
And Jesus said to him, 
"Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Matthew 8:20

As we continue to follow the One who had "nowhere to lay his head,"
His Spirit transforms us, little by little, into His image.
Therefore, remarkably, we too begin to feel a discomfort similar to His own.
Jesus even said Himself, that his followers "are not of the world,
just as I am not of the world." John 17:14
So, I suppose He warned us.
This life is not supposed to be a comfortable one.

But, we do realize that this is truly the life.

The best life. The only life.
The Living Water that our garden's roots are thirsting for,

so that they may truly live and grow. 

To sway right along to the perfect song in His heart,

and to seek the beauty of His face.

"You have said, 'Seek my face."

My heart says to you,

"Your face, Lord, do I seek." Psalm 27:8

Because, really, what was life like before He created this garden in our hearts?
John makes a hint...

So good you didn't see
The nervous wreck I used to be

So, the first line doesn't quite fit;

for of course He has always known us,
we simply haven't always known Him.
But, now that we know Him,
our anxiety dissipates the second we enter His presence.
We are no longer the nervous wreck of our old life,
not now that we have heard him say
"Come to me, all you who are weary
and burdened and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

In fact, He lovingly commands us...
"I tell you, do not be anxious about your life." Matthew 6:25

In fact, the Father doesn't even see

the wreck we used to be.
It is quite a miracle, in fact, that He did see us at all.
And, in spite of our wrecked condition,
He reached out His hand in grace to place His Son inside our hearts to stay.

Now, when He looks at us,

he cannot see what we used to be,

our former sin is foreign to Him.

A couple other foreign feelings come to us as well, as John explains...

You'd never know a man could feel so small

"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful him,

and the son of man that you care for him?" Psalm 8:3-4

Have you ever felt as small as you have in the presence of God?

I sure haven't.

Yet, I have simultaneously never felt so loved...

And you never look at me
Like I'm a liability
I bet you think I've never been at all

This line revealed, for me, the way He looks at us:

in love.

God could look at us as if we were just a liability.

But He doesn't.

Out of His love, not His obligation, does He turn our disaster of a heart into a beautiful garden.
Even in our darkest places,
He has never once considered it His "responsibility" to shine His light upon us.
In fact, He considered it his joy.

"...He will take great delight in you,

He will quiet you with His love.

He will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17

Now that he has made Himself at home, you might just hear a faint voice.
Because, now that He has got you to open the gate of your once deadening garden,
He doesn't plan on just stopping in for a visit.

He is jealous for this place.

His jealousy is passionate, 
so loving and longing, 
that in this part of the song you may hear Christ in you,

your Everlasting Gardener, softly singing...

"Maybe I could stay a while,
Maybe I could stay a while,
Maybe I could stay a while,
I'm talkin' like all of the time"

He's always been jealous for us; 
but when we let Him in,

He begins to make himself at home.

He never leaves us.

Never once does the Spirit depart from our own personal garden of everlasting life.

Why? Because the Holy Spirit, our Gardener who signed sealed and delivered us, is God's permanent presence with us.

And he doesn't want to just stay a while,

He wants to permeate all of us, all of the time.

"Jesus said, 'I will ask the Father, and

he will give you another Counselor

to be with you forever-

the Spirit of truth."

John 14:16,17

So, we must seek His face.

In this garden, we let Him in through the Holy Spirit. 

We let Him walk barefoot along the fresh dirt
and plant seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22).
And day by day he waters them with grace,
and with a smile on His face,
He watches them grow.

(Maybe I could stay a while)
Little by little, inch by inch,
(Maybe I could stay a while)
We built a yard with a garden in the middle of it,
(Maybe I could stay a while)
And it ain't much, but it's a start,
(I'm talkin' like all of the time)
You got me swaying right along to the song in your heart

And a face to call home
A face to call home
You got a face to call home

So, what?

I think the reason why we don't feel at home here, 
is simply because we aren't truly home yet.

And when we arrive home, we'll know-- because we'll see His face.

And He has a Face to Call Home.

"His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance." Revelation 1:16

So, until then, we joyfully obey his command to

"Seek my face."

Lord,
I long to seek Your face. This is where home is. Since I've started listening to the song in your heart, since I've let you in to my heart to start a garden of life, I have been roaming this earth for a place that feels like home. I have yet to find it. But I find what feels like home the moment I step inside Your presence. The moment my heart is opened to Your Spirit, I feel more at home than when I cuddle into the bed I slept in all my life, or open the door and smell my mother's cookies and am tackled by my dog.

I ask Your help, to keep my eyes fixed on Your face to call Home, and to warn me when I allow anything to disrupt the garden You so generously and carefully keep and guard. Help me to keep it between you and me.

And Lord, Thank You. Thank You for giving Your Spirit without limit, and for constantly looking upon me with love. I could not ask for more. I cannot imagine a place I would rather be, than at home with You.
I love you.

Amen.

"I do not ask that you take them out of the world,

but that you keep them from the evil one." John 17:15

" Yes, because God's your refuge,
the High God your very own home,
Evil can't get close to you,
harm can't get through the door.
He ordered his angels
to guard you wherever you go." Psalm 91:9-10

"Though you have not seen him,
you love him,
and even though you do not see him now,
you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
for you are receiving the goal of your faith,
the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:8-9

"For we know that if the tent that is our earthy home is destroyed,
we have a building from God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens...
He who has prepared us for this very thing is God,
who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee." 2 Corinthians 5:1, 5

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you

with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." Ephesians 3:16, 17

"For God, who said, 
'Let light shine out darkness,' has shone in our hearts 
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6