“For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come” (Heb 13:14).
When in the middle of uncomfortable surroundings, like a doctor’s waiting room, or the crush of an amusement park line, or any over-peopled place, sometimes I say under my breath, all measured and seething-like, “Get me out of here!”
I’m impatient like that.
Were I to reflect, I think what I really mean by it is “God, would You please get me out of—not so much this situation right before me, but the one before me all the time—this earth-predicament? It weighs a body down.” To be clear, I don’t think this is a bad train of thought. And, contrary to those who might misdiagnose me otherwise, I’m not a pessimistic person by new nature. Just the restless, amen-come-Lord-Jesus kind (Rev 22:20).
Perhaps you are restless like this too. Maybe, if we’re both being honest, behind everything we do to keep the lights on or stay busy in this life, under every smile we form to greet the ups and downs of daily circumstance, there’s a nagging sense of homelessness we carry wherever we go. And, as a result, no matter what roof we have over our head, we experience the burden of being more aware of our true homelessness than our maturity levels can bear.
I think it is that way; although it’s not an existential anguish we can’t recover from. It’d only be that if there were no ultimate solution to life, no final paradise found.
Gratefully, as followers of Jesus, we know there is such a solution—that we are here in the realm of fallen time, with a God-given mission to live out, followed by the best before us after that. That’s when one day we’ll enter Heaven and experience a feeling that is like, yet far surpasses, the welcoming warmth of stepping through the front door of our earthly homes after a long trip away. And encouraging us onward until that moment will be God’s Spirit within us and a host of God-inspired words (Lk 23:43; Jn 14:2; 1 Cor 2:9; and Rev 22:1-5 among them) giving us the comfort of knowing that, upon entering Heaven, the thought “Get me out of here” won’t ever cross our minds again, only the never-ending awareness that the home we’ve always dreamed for is finally here.
I hope this encourages you today to look forward to your home yet to come.
Kevin Murray
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