There was the time a lion snatched a boy in the village, David said. He went on to explain that on its first attack, a lion doesn’t bite down completely.

The lion let go, and as it was trying to regain its grip, the dog got between them. The boy survived, though not without some deep wounds.

This was David’s backyard, growing up. He’s a church leader from the Marsabit region of Kenya.

He told us how he used to walk to school. There were years when his school was more than 60km away. It took him the whole night to get there on foot. Once there, he’d stay the whole term before coming home. When school was out, he’d make the whole long walk again. If that weren’t enough, he’d have to find his village because their nomadic group occasionally moved. Maybe the old homestead will have dried up and not had enough to sustain life. They’d move to follow green pasture for their herds. When David didn’t know which way to go, he’d ask. There was always someone who knew the way they’d gone.

Walking home the whole night to discover your home has changed?! Sound like anyone else’s spiritual journey?

Some of you may know what I’m talking about. At some point, our home changed. It happened to me when I was at university. I grew up with one home but realized that I had become a citizen of a new one. I realized the home I had wasn’t as permanent as I once thought. It was not my home anymore.

And, like David’s family, I’m now looking to a new home, but one that will never dry out and will sustain life forever. And, like many others, I’m still on that pilgrimage.

And if you think you’re lost, just say, “Lord we don’t know the way.”

You wouldn’t be the first…

“We always found our way,” David said about those years as a boy. He could always ask around. And that’s the thing; if you asked people who were witnesses, they could always tell you the way.

I’ve seen that new home in flashes. There are hints of it around.

It’s a place where the trees will clap their hands and not just ruffle their leaves in the breeze. A place where the mountains will sing and not just whistle in the wind. And crucially, for people like David, it’s a place where the lion will lie next to the lamb.

You know the new home I’m talking about?

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