It’s easy to think of “home” and assume we know all its depths: we have all, at some point in our lives, had someplace to call home. It’s a straightforward concept on the surface, replete with cliches and well-worn phrases. Always root for your hometown team. There’s no place like home. Home is where the heart is. 

But a closer look reveals cracks in the surface of this tidy idea. Home can be both a personal sanctuary and a place we throw open to others–even strangers–in the act of hospitality. Furthermore, though we grow up in a home and often put down deep roots there, an essential part of growing up is leaving home to make our own way (perhaps, find our own home) in the larger world. Still, as we roam far and wide, our sense of home often persists–home is, in some sense, permanent–but at the same time it is also dangerously vulnerable to fire, extreme weather, and political or social unrest. Taking it even further, Christians believe that, while there are places on Earth we consider home, our true and ultimate home is not even in this world. 

This theme seeks to explore the radiating cracks and tensions at the heart of the idea of home. Your pitch for this issue might answer questions like these:

• What do we do when we lose our home? 
• What does it mean to call somewhere home on earth, while still considering our true home to be in heaven? 
• What does it mean to be homesick? Why do we, as humans, long for home? 
• Can we call multiple places home? 
• What does it mean to feel the presence of a departed loved one in your home? 
• Is a sense of home always rooted to a sense of place? 
• Is there such a thing as a spiritual home, and if so, what is it? 
• What does it mean when it doesn’t feel good to be home? 

Please consider these examples a starting point, not a limit.