Homesick!

        On a recent trip with my daughter and grandson, who was not yet two years old, several times I found Ruben standing in the middle of a room piteously saying, "Home.  Home."  That little one was homesick!  I love traveling, but I too am glad to get home "to my own little corner."  But as I get older, I am starting to say, "Home.  Home." in a different way.  I am getting ready for my Heavenly home, and sometimes I too am homesick.

        John 14:2-3 says, "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." He's getting ready for us!

        In Revelation 21, beginning at verse 11, we are given a description of the physical city, the New Jerusalem.  It shines with the glory of God.  Its walls are walls of jasper and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass;  The foundations of the city walls are decorated with every kind of precious stones.  The gates are made of pearls.  (See, the pearly gates of song and poetry!) The great street of the city is of pure gold, like transparent glass.  I think this description is all we can absorb, that the reality will be beyond what our imaginations can fathom.

        There's another description in chapter 21:3-4.  "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain."  I don't know what those last tears will be over, perhaps over those not in Heaven, but I know that if Jesus wipes away the tears, they won't come back and I don't believe we will even remember them.

         While we talk about God dwelling with us, in 21:23, I read, "And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb."  To be forever in the light of God and to reflect His glory!

          I have been looking up and singing songs about Heaven for days now.  There are many:  O That Will Be Glory, Some Golden Daybreak, The Way of the Cross Leads Home, Heaven I'm Going There, Beulah Land, I'll Fly Away.  Every year more of my loved ones are home on the other side.  I miss my parents, my grandparents, my dear friends, but the One I long to see is Jesus--I Want to See my Savior First of All.  Fanny Crosby wrote, "I will know Him by the prints of the nails in His hands."

            

            Face to face with Christ, my Savior,

            Face to face--what will it be--

            When with rapture I behold Him--

            Jesus Christ who died for me?

              Face to face I shall behold Him,

              Far beyond the starry sky:

              Face to face in all His glory,

               I shall see Him by and by.

                So I end with, are you homesick for Heaven:  Are you longing to see Him?  No, I'm not getting up a group to leave now.  I'm here for as long as He chooses, but

                This world is not my home, I'm just passing through.

                 My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.

                 The angels beckon me from Heaven's open door,

                 And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

~~Faith Himes Lamb