Our Home Is Ahead

Read: Hebrews 11:8-10

By faith [Abraham] dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country. --- Hebrews 11:9

The Bible In One Year:
Genesis 20-22
Matthew 6:19-34

Now that I'm getting closer to the end of life's journey, I'm thinking more like a transient. I suppose it's natural. Abraham first described himself as "a foreigner and a visitor" when he was buying a burial plot for Sarah [Genesis 23:4]. Time and death make you think about such things.

Most elderly believers say the same thing: There's no home for us this side of heaven. Like Pilgrim in Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, once we've caught sight of the Celestial City we can never be content with anything less. Like Abraham, we look for a city whose builder is God [Hebrews 11:10].

In Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings, as Frodo and the other hobbits set out on their great adventure, they sing, "Home is behind, the world ahead." But for Christians, it's the other way around: The world is behind; our home is ahead.

There are no valleys of weeping there, for "God will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. These shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" [Revelation 21:4]. That promise makes the present journey easier to endure.

Put another way, it's the hope of going home that keeps me going. I can hardly wait to get there! --- David Roper

I have a home in heaven above,
From sin and sorrow free,
A mansion which eternal love
Designed and formed for me. --- Bennett

THE MORE YOU LOOK FORWARD TO HEAVEN, THE LESS YOU'LL DESIRE OF EARTH.