As we bring our series on travel, we contemplate what it means to return home. Jesus says “abide in me” and follows that us with the commandment to love one another. The beauty of travel as a spiritual act is, as Rick Steves says, that our prized souvenirs are the “strands of different cultures we decide to knit into our own character.”
Leaving Egypt was not a pleasure excursion for the Hebrew people. But the story of their pilgrimage in the desert in the Book of Exodus reminds us that traveling, moving, leaving home, is part of our Judeo-Christian tradition. Each of us finds ourselves sometime in life needing to leave the familiar in order to grow and to thrive. Beginning a journey involves leaving “home”- whether that is a physical place in order to explore another part of the world, or changing a mindset that keeps us from expanding our spiritual capacity. What must we do to embark in to the unknown?