This Christmas, Ginger, Thomas and I are making our usual rounds to Memphis and Knoxville to visit our families. As we go from home to home (and eventually back to our home in Louisville), I think about what makes a home. There is the old cliche’ “Home is where the heart is,” and in many ways, this could be true for all of us. I continually look at the struggles and heartaches of those in my world as well as the fading things that so many put hope in. We often find ourselves dreaming of some tomorrow that will never materialize. We end up blaming others or ourselves for our dissatisfaction.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex.”3
So we all long for a home, but no one will be fully satisfied with any home or acceptance that is found on this earth. Even the best home cannot fill the gap of eternity because everything is fading away. So it does make sense that we are not truly home yet.
I’ve been meditating on 2 passages that point to this fact. Hebrews 11 is often called the “Hall of Faith” as it describes many of the Old Testament heroes who believed in God. It wasn’t that they were great, but rather, it was the God they were trusting in who is great. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them”(Hebrews 11:13-16). Later, Hebrews 13:14 says, “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”
Many times, the greatest gift we can receive is a life of hardship like these Hebrew Christians. When all is going well, we can subtly be tricked into believing that this is as good as it gets. However, we are lulled to sleep and complacency when so much more is offered. When we are shaken to the core and things do not go our way, let it be a reminder that you are not yet home and this should not be a surprise to us. Our best life is not now, but our best life is to come. Let us continually look to the author and perfecter of our faith and hold fast to believing that His ways are always right and best. He is worthy of all trust and praise!
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