I have made the case that the world is comprehensible because as image-bearers we are equipped with divine voice recognition software which allows us to listen to the world around us and hear the words God spoke into creation long ago. We investigate the world as scientists, artists, engineers, and philosophers because we hear what He has said and want to know what is on His mind. The physical banter of His immaterial thoughts is a universal invitation to pick His brain.

My family recently returned from a trip to Maui. It was beautiful, peaceful, and we all left reenergized. As we flew back home, I began to wonder why we humans love to travel to new places? Why do we leave our homes to recharge our spiritual batteries? I would argue that we vacation in order to expand our God vocabulary. We continue to hear the words of our favorite spoken word Artist, we recognize the cadence of His speech and the way He turns a creative phrase but are mesmerized by words we have never heard before. We are exposed to a new vocabulary that is particularly well amplified by the acoustics of our chosen vacation spot. It’s like reading the latest offering from our favorite author, we already love the way she or he writes, but are excited by the new places they will take us. Vacations allow us to enter into God’s sabbath rest, recline on a lounge chair, and declare with Him, “Behold, it is very good.”

If I can experience God’s spoken words in Eastern Washington, why go to Hawaii? It raises the age-old philosophical question, “what does Maui have to do with Spokane?” Vacations refresh us because we get to hear God in an entirely new way, but if you are like me, when you return home you often have a new appreciation for your old neighborhood. I think the problem is that we become so familiar with our surroundings that we lose sight of the fact that God speaks to us in our hometowns. Maybe we need to view each day as a staycation so that we will become more attentive to the poetic nuance of God’s voice in our own backyard.