Finding my Home

By Levi Curlee, Fellows Class of 2026

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when someone asks, “Where is home?” Because I had lived in the same place since 4th grade, home was something I seldom considered. My home was simply the house I lived in, which happened to include the people I love and grew up with, as well as the memories that came along with them. While this is not a “wrong” way of thinking about home, it might be a bit shallow. Siblings grow up and leave. You grow up and leave. Your family leaves. If you only think of home as a building or even the people you are surrounded by, the concept of home begins to falter when circumstances or locations change.

My idea of home really began to shift in the summer of 2024 when my parents moved away from my childhood home. Whenever people asked me where I was from, I had to launch into this explanation of how where I’m going for the holidays isn’t actually where I’m from. While this wasn’t an existential crisis, it did cause me to reconsider what home actually means. My regard for home began to shift from a location to the community of people who reminded me of home. My family and friends were home. Although this is a more complete picture of home, it still doesn’t seem to cover everything. And, since I recently moved to Chattanooga, away from most of my friends and my family, and basically everyone I knew, what does that make home now?

Moving to an unknown place as a young adult was what it took me to realize that my home cannot be identified with a place or even with people I love. Home, and the belonging it brings with it, is truly found only in the One who has given me the gifts of place and people. I entered Chattanooga knowing almost no one, and now, after just a few short months, I am fortunate enough to have another place and group of people that I can call home: a host family, church family, coworkers, and caring friends. 

While I am grateful to consider so many people and places to feel like home, God is still stretching my understanding of the home He intends for each of us. Philippians 3:20 states,

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

As believers, we will not ultimately be home until we are with Jesus in His new Kingdom on earth. However, I’m grateful that God has allowed me to glimpse what that home will be like based on the many places and people whose stories and mine have been interwoven.

Whether I’m in Chattanooga, celebrating the holidays with my family, or hanging out with friends, I can reflect and be grateful for all of the homes that God has blessed me with while ultimately looking forward to the true and greater Home - dwelling with Jesus alongside others who share in His Hope.

—

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  1 Corinthians 13:12