I love the word dwelling. It invites and it implies resting, enjoying, pausing, pondering, and making oneself at home. My own history of packing and moving, relocating, and making homes in new places has sometimes made me envy those who dwell in one place for many years and their sense of knowing, being known, and belonging in that place. My envy was assuaged when a beloved mentor pointed out that there have always been those who settle and those who roam. The two ways of life, she reminded me, are different callings. Those who move about may learn valuable resilience, that change need not be merely loss, and that God, more than any place on earth, is our dwelling place.

That conversation helped me consider my moves and changes in a new light and with a larger perspective. Though “uprooting” myself and my family has had its costs, over time it has deepened my dependence on this truth: God is our dwelling place. The words of two different psalms stay with me: “Though I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy right hand shall hold me” (Ps. 139:9-10, ap). Wherever I go, God meets me there. In today’s passage, the psalmist writes, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.” Every day we awake in God’s light. Even if we wake up in strange places in our travels, in new apartments, or in provisional accommodations, among all that is temporary the love that surrounds us is “steadfast.” It is our dwelling place. We are held there, found and familiar and at home.