We’re Not Home Yet

The thought of home brings happy memories for me. As a student in seminary, it meant boarding a train in London for the five-hour trip north to Glasgow, then on to Ayr on the west coast. After I moved to America, it meant looking out the window as I flew back home at field after field of white, fluffy sheep as we were about to land in Scotland. My memories of home as I think back now are of my mum in her green chair by the fireplace, always there to welcome us home from school every day. Although we faced so much pain after the death of my father, my mum was a constant source of love and stability, always praying for her children.

The idea of going home is not always a welcome one. You might be divorced and the place you once called home is no longer home to you. It reminds you of what once was and what fell apart and hurt you so badly. But let me say this, when Jesus talked about home, about his Father’s home, it was more than you and I have ever imagined in our wildest dreams. That can be a challenging picture to hold on to. Life is shifting all the time. It’s hard to keep focused on what’s waiting for us when so much of life on this earth is hard and disappointing. I think that’s why heaven is mentioned in the Bible so many times, to remind us that we’re not home yet. There are so many things to distract us, and we’re encouraged to choose to remember who we are and where we belong. Can you imagine how beautiful our new lives will be? There will be no more fear, anxiety, comparison, jealousy, or insecurity because we’ll finally be home. I can only imagine.

I want us to meditate on these verses one more time.

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. (Col. 3:1-2)

We’re not home yet – life still has its struggles – but because of Jesus, we have been raised to a brand-new life. This is our ultimate hope, so we set our sights on the realities of heaven.

Sheila joins Randy and Tammy to talk about heaven this Tuesday and Thursday on LIFE TODAY. Excerpted from The Hope Of Heaven by Sheila Walsh. Copyright ©2024 by Sheila Walsh. Published by Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Used by permission.