Homesick for Heaven

I got off the phone with a friend- another cancer diagnosis. Scrolling through social media- aliens are invading, and wars are raging. Imperfections and insecurity abound in my heart as I strive to succeed in my own efforts. Will it ever end?

While driving, my family discussed what they dreamt a perfect world would look like. No more sickness, pain, or death. In the back, my son sighed and exclaimed, “I am homesick for heaven.” 

His words crashed into my heart like an unexpected ocean wave. My son named my condition - homesickness.

What is homesickness? 

Being homesick is a profound emotional and physical distress caused by being away from home, family, or familiar surroundings. It triggers an intense yearning to return, accompanied by feelings of sadness, anxiety, or a preoccupation with the comforts of home. [1]

The word homesick reminded me of when I went to college. My parents had recently moved to Florida, a foreign place compared to the lush rolling hills of upstate NY. I had not seen them all semester, and I visited them for the first time during the Christmas holiday. The humid air and the smell of reprocessed sprinkler water hit my nose as I got off the plane. This place was not home, but as I stood at arrivals, my father was waiting for me. He ran up and held me close. Even in a foreign place, in my father’s embrace, I was home.

What if we desire to return to a place that we have never been? 

In most cultures and religions, there is an undercurrent of yearning for a perfected world. Heaven, Nirvana, Valhalla, Jannah, etc. The Bible states the reason for this yearning, “God has placed eternity in our hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Why? Why would he put a continual thirst for something beyond our grasp that we could never fully attain now? 

God placed a longing in us so that we may look beyond the things in this world that will temporarily satisfy our homesick hearts, to what will satisfy forever. Namely, himself.

Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:2), and the longing of home will be satisfied with the presence of your Heavenly Father on this earth until he brings you home.

[1] “HOMESICK Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.Com,” accessed June 1, 2026, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/homesick.