Elizabeth Cochrane left New York to prove a point. She was a 25-year-old journalist. It was 1889. It was not the only time she set out to change perceptions about what women could do. This time, her plan was to travel around the world in less than 80 days. And yes, she was inspired by Jules Verne’s fictional character, Phileas Fogg.

She endured traveling alone by steam ships and trains. She spoke only English. She carried only one bag. Between Sri Lanka and Hong Kong, her ship nearly foundered in a four-day, gale force storm. Arriving alive, she saw something in Hong Kong on Christmas Day that stopped her in her tracks and reminded her of home. It was an American flag. “The moment I saw it floating there in the soft, lazy breeze,” she wrote, “I took off my cap and said: That is the most beautiful flag in the world.” She noticed “the strange fact that the further one goes from home the more loyal one becomes.”

The day must have contributed to the sensation – the memory of being safely home enjoying Christmas dinner and exchanging gifts with family. There, she is protected from storms and stalkers. There, she sets work aside to enjoy a rest. She went on to complete her journey in 72 days, newly motivated by the thought of home.

Christmas has that effect. It beckons you to look closer at your loyalties. It brings the yearnings of the soul to the surface. In a world of trenchant voices, each storming you with their own causes, the soul yearns for peace. In a cultural moment stalked by claims that right is wrong and truth is false, the soul longs for home.

Look closer at what that means. In his poem, “The House of Christmas,” Chesterton describes our predicament. “Men are homesick in their homes, and strangers under the sun, and they lay their heads in a foreign land whenever the day is done.” He also points to the hope of Bethlehem. “A Child in a foul stable, where beasts feed and foam, only where He was homeless are you and I at home.” The home we yearn for, even in this fallen world, is to be where God is. “Immanuel,” they called the Child, “God with us.” Look into His face.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He lived in Nazareth growing up. Capernaum in Galilee was home during his ministry years. But Jesus has another home in mind for you. “I go to prepare a place for you,” He said. “You know the way… I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:2-6). That is the hope revealed to humanity by the Child in that stable. The Light shined in the darkness, showing you the way home.