Not our home yet.

This morning I had a lovely exchange of notes online with my 21 year old granddaughter who just returned home from 2 months as part of a tour/course in Europe, e.g. Italy, France, Switzerland, and more. This was based upon her college major and with a group of students from her university who are in the same study program. We hope to get together when she'll share more; but I so enjoyed the many photos she shared online during her time abroad. She really got to see many historical and beautiful sights in the old world so to speak. Culture, architecture, art, recreation, etc. Very much a tour of that significant part of our world.

But all in all as she was in a different world there remains the old adage that there is just "no place like home." And so, at 21, she learns this as most of us have even though we may not have gone to Europe to learn it. Life teaches us that there really is just "no place like home." But...

Reflecting on this I am thinking..this is not really our world anymore than Europe was hers even though we call it home. In other words it is not our "lasting" home. Our home is somewhere else..beyond this "human" world we now inhabit. Our home is a spiritual place for we are spiritual beings who are also human. We may get glimpses and tastes of it yet we yearn deep within for our spiritual home. As the early church Father, Augustine of Hippo, put it so long ago, " You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless, Lord, until they rest in Thee."

And, as we read the last chapters in the Book of Revelation we learn that someday for us there will be a "new heavens" and "a new earth." Someday this earth or this world will be ours for keeps and we will be with Our God. Home for good in our earth renewed.

Then I saw a new heavens and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying of pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:1-4)

 
Hi Sandpiper...

Many Scriptures back you up on this, that this is not our official home. That heaven is our real home and we are ambassadors for Christ on earth once we accept Jesus as Lord.

We should think of ourselves as living like those people who come over from another country amd have diplomatic immunity and are indeed ambassadors or representatives of the country that they came from. :)

Great thoughts and post my friend!

But we are citizens of the state (commonwealth, homeland) which is in heaven, and from it also we earnestly and patiently await [the coming of] the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) [as] Savior,
Philippians 3:20 AMPC
http://bible.com/8/php.3.20.AMPC
 
Hi Sandpiper...



But we are citizens of the state (commonwealth, homeland) which is in heaven, and from it also we earnestly and patiently await [the coming of] the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) [as] Savior,
Philippians 3:20 AMPC
http://bible.com/8/php.3.20.AMPC

Or as one of my teachers once said. "I have my suitcase in hand and I am just traveling through this place. This is not my home." Amen!
 
All my life, even as a child, I would often unthinkingly catch myself saying, "I want to go home", when I was technically at home at the time. I've never felt I've even really found home here on Earth, and there is a part of me that has always longed to be truly home. Not until I became a true Christian, did I understand all those previous decades of yearning to go home. I may never see home, but I at least know that this place is not it. I also believe the Bible in that it says that when we do reach "home" our tears will be wiped from our eyes, and our sorrows will be wiped from our memories. For my personal self,I do not now if there will be recognition of those we knew on Earth, or if we will possess a consciousness that we are so familiar with in this life. For me it is of no use speculating since I can only hope for one single thing - to be counted among those who will serve and worship the Lord for all eternity. I would consider it an honor to serve the one who serves the one who serves the one who serves the Lord's most lowliest servant. It would be such a wondrous honor.
 
Hi Egraine,

I also understand the feeling want to go home but your are at home. For me personally the feeling home is when I am with my christian friends and we do things together. When I go camping with my youth from church I feel at home all the love and worship. I am very blessed with my friends but when you go home real home you feel that you are not really at home. God is good and I love him with my whole heart, I think sometimes he makes you feel this way to go out and preach for other feed there hunger for His Holy words.

Psalm 51:10
 
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