You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
The Son of Man may have had nowhere to lay his head – but he did have a lake house where he could hang his hat: Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake…
It seems Jesus made this move from his family home in Nazareth after learning of John’s arrest by Herod. Was Capernaum safer than Nazareth? Or did he move there because it was home to several of his new disciples? Capernaum, where Peter and Andrew lived, became the place Jesus went back to when he could, the center for his new and growing community of followers.
Yet, from what we read in the Gospels, Jesus didn’t spend much time there. He was on the move, heading forward, alive to God’s mission, making the love and justice and wholeness of God known in word and action. I wonder how much time he actually spent in Capernaum, and whether he missed it when he was on the road.
Where is home for you? Is it where it’s always been, or someplace new? I made a big move last summer to take up life and ministry in Nova Scotia, a place I’d never even visited, but in which I feel completely at home. Often the mission of God calls us out of the familiar into new places.
And where is home for you relative to your engagement in God's mission? Is it the place you retreat to, or the place from which your ministry comes, your base of operations? My home is both.
Do you have a place for prayer or worship in your home? Consider creating one – a corner of a room, a table and chair, a seat by a window… a place where you go to pray, light a candle, read the bible, give thanks to God, invite God’s Spirit to fill you and inspire your projects.
The letter to the Hebrews says our ultimate home is with God in the heavenly places, reminding us that the heroes of faith we read about in the Old Testament knew their homes on this earth were just rest stops on their journey to the heart of God’s love. Certainly Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whom many honor today, was well aware of that as he traveled and worked tirelessly for racial justice. He was assassinated in a motel, as temporary a home as can be.
Jesus must have known that the home he made in Capernaum was exceedingly temporary. I hope he enjoyed his water views while he could, knowing his final rest would be in the true Home from which he came, the home he has promised to prepare for us. So let's enjoy home – and not get so comfortable we forget where we’re headed.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
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