One of the joys of reaching my long-ago twelfth birthday was the permission granted by my parents to join the other boys in the neighborhood on their all-day bike trips. What adventures they were! Planning went on for weeks, and by the day of departure, routes, distances, and destinations had been checked, rechecked, and checked again! The routes were always circular because we counted it both a sign of good planning and a hedge against boredom never to peddle home on the same road by which we left. 

I thought about those wondrous trips when some time ago I read a line from T.S. Eliot. He wrote, “And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” Putting the memories of bicycle trips aside, Eliot’s words go to the heart of Christian faith. 

As Christians, we believe that all life comes from God and that someday each of us will return to Him. Is it not as Eliot suggests? The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and although we now have some understanding of that place, it will be like discovering it for the first time. 

A Christian believes in the fundamental reality of that journey and its destination. We know that we are on our way to that place from which we have come. That journey will be different for each of us. Some will feel that the road leads uphill all the way. Others will discover that the journey is less arduous. But whether the road is easy or hard, the journey, we believe, will bring us home.