3
Jul
2013
0

Dual citizenship

2013-07-03 10.21.49

When I first moved to the UK, I felt so self-consciously American. Hyper aware of my accent, which immediately labeled me as foreign. Fifteen years later, I usually forget my “other” status, but sometimes – often when I’m out of London – someone will look at me with curiosity and ask me where I’m from.

“North London,” I’ll say somewhat cheekily, fully knowing that’s not what they mean. “But from the States originally.”

And again I’ll be jolted into an awareness of otherness. That sense of being a foreigner in a strange land. The longing for home, which God embedded into each of us, whether we live in an adopted country or not.

A few months ago I wrote a poem expressing some of these feelings of heavenly citizenship, and to Whom we ultimately belong.

 

We belong
Attached
To you
To others
We belong.
 
The yoke
It’s a light burden
Making us free
Releasing us to bolt
Out from our pens
The gates flung open
Running to the Father.
 
We belong
Peace resides with us
A home is ours
With arms and legs
Hearts and hands
We belong.
 
Freedom and joy
Usher in light and peace
Rooted in the earth
Grounded we are.
 
Foreigners and aliens
Away from our home
Longing for a country
For a city and the throne.
 
We belong to each other
Needed for love
Learning to see Jesus
His presence among us
We belong.
 
© 2013 Amy Boucher Pye  
 

What makes you yearn for home?

 

 

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.