"Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying: God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” (Gen 50,25)

Joseph's last recorded words in the Scripture concern his remains. Such thinking is almost out of the sphere of interest for the citizens of the developed world today, but what happened to them after death was very important for the people of antiquity  - they believed that human life has an overlap beyond the temporality of matter.

Joseph got ahead in Egypt, he achieved a high position, wealth, but he associated it only with his temporary fate. He lived in Egypt, but did not want to rest there. He saw his permanent place in the promised land. It is strange to realize that after he had left it at the age of 17, he lived outside till the end of his life when he was 110. He may have visited it a few times in the meantime, but his heart, his home, was there forever. He understood why his fathers valued it as an inheritance from God, but it is clear that Joseph did not act only in blind obedience. He accepted the land into his heart, it was permanently inscribed there.

Life takes us to different places - locally or figuratively. However, we need to know where we are really at home. Sure, we can live or just survive almost anywhere, but to rest we can only where our hearts dwell. Well, St. Augustine already knew about it:

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”