This pilgrimage of life has been, and still is for that matter a grand, exciting and interesting adventure, but like a wanderer home from his travels, my soul thrills at the thought of going home to my eternal abiding place. I love the message found in 2 Cor. 5:6-9, “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage, I say and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”
This fleshly body in which we now dwell will one day be no more. It is perishable and will return to the dust (Ecclesiastes 12:7). When that happens, as a faithful child of God, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens awaiting us (2 Corinthians 5:1-2, John 14:1-3). Each day we live, we realize more and more that this earthly frame does not endure very well. Psalms 90:10 tells us that even if we live to be 70 or 80 years of age, our days will be labor and sorrow. Each passing day takes its toll and we simply grow weaker as age creeps up on us. Sicknesses and diseases and trials of all kind strike our human frame causing us to groan, being burdened (2 Corinthians 5:4). We need to just pause and pray that God will grant to us the strength, comfort and peace we need to enable us to grow stronger in our faith and have the ability to overcome all obstacles that we encounter on our journey as we press onward toward that goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14, John 14:1-3, Phil. 4:5-7, Heb. 4:16, 1 Thess. 5:17). Then, after praying, rise up and do what we can do to make it possible for God to answer our prayer.
I know not how you feel, but the one thought that really lifts me up each day is that I love the Lord with all my heart (Mark 12:30, Isaiah 12:2) and I am heaven bound (2 Cor. 5:1, 1 John 5:11-13). I am going to cling to him for dear life and with joy in my heart make the most of each day knowing that I have been redeemed through the blood of Christ, my sins have been washed away and I have been forgiven (Colossians 1:12-14, Hebrews 10:22-23, 1 John 1:7-9, Phil. 4:4). Now, I ask, how do you feel about all this as you reflect on your life?
What deep emotions should be stirred up within us as we think about going home to be with the Lord. Going home to a city where for ceaseless ages there will be no pain, no heartache, no tears, no sickness, no death. It is truly a land where joys shall never end and we will never grow old. That beautiful home tugs ever so gently at my heart strings every day. What more is there to say? God so loved the world that he gave his son and by believing in him and obeying him we gain eternal life with the redeemed of all ages (John 3:16, Romans 5:8, Hebrews 5:7-9).
We all know that the day is coming in which our heart will beat for the last and the sun will set on our life (Eccl. 9:5, Heb. 9:27). Our major concern should not be on when, where or how that will happen. The best thing we can do for ourself and others for that matter, is to make sure that when that happens, we are ready to exit this world and enter the world that will never end. To God be the glory forever and ever!
Charles Hicks
