As
a preacher’s kid who moved several times during my childhood, I always longed
for a hometown, a place I came from. I
was born in Wheaton, Illinois, but left there when I was thirteen. When I went to college, my hometown was
listed as Racine, Wisconsin, though we moved there just before my senior year
in high school. By graduate school my
parents had moved again, this time to Denver, Colorado, and then that’s what
was listed as my hometown, though I had never even visited there. I thought being able to say a hometown would
have made me happy.
I
was reminded of that longing by the message Duane Beach preached on
Hebrews11:13-16. “…having confessed that
they were strangers and exiles on the earth…they are seeking a country of their
own…they desire a better country, that is to say, a heavenly one.”
No
wonder we have a longing for home. Our
problem lies in looking for it here on earth.
“This world is not my home; I’m just a passing through. . . and I can’t
feel at home in this world any more.”
Duane said that we have the vision
and values of home and these change our behavior. What if we had the vision and values of our
heavenly home? Would that be different
from the vision and values we have right now?
Right now I have questions that I
don’t have the answers for. I know that
we are in this world, but not of it.
John tells us that in chapter 17 where he prays for his disciples
saying, “I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from
the evil one. They are not of this world,
even as I am not of this world.”
Obviously, He has left us in the world for a reason. I know I am to bring glory to God; I know I
am to give people a thirst for God; I know I am to show that I am a citizen of
another Country. What does that really look
like? I want to know.
In the meantime, I want to go Home. Do I long for Heaven far more than I longed
for a hometown when I was young? Do I
long for Heaven because I want to be out of the trials and heartaches of this
life or do I long to go Home because that is where I belong?
Teach me, Lord.
~~Faith Himes Lamb
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