We spent 26 days living in a handful of hotels and a two bedroom furnished apartment as we moved from Central Texas to the Hampton Roads, VA area. No, we weren’t really roughing it. For the last few weeks, we could watch all of the Olympic Prime Time shows, cook meals, and enjoy time together as a family. We had laundry a floor below us and relatively close parking but there was something challenging about those three weeks in the furnished apartment. What, you ask? Well, our “official home” was about 15 minutes away and vacant for the last two weeks. The hotel, though my family was there and I had enough clothes and items to make life successful couldn’t be “home.”
Believe me, we wanted to settle in. We did some–put clothes in dressers and made it so we were not completely living out of suitcases but you can’t really settle into a place that isn’t home. Shelly organized the groceries in cabinets, I bought her flowers “just because” one day to make her a bit more comfortable, but it was so nice to move into our “real” home for as long as God has us at this duty station.
This move reminded me of our temporary living situation here on earth. There’s an old song that says, “This world is not my home, I’m just ‘a passin through. My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond to blue. The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore. I’ve has a lot of chances to think about how that eternal perspective should shape our daily lives on this earth. How much do I try to “settle in” to my Army (or currently Air Force) quarters to feel at home when I know I’m going to move in a few years? More than that, how much do I try to settle into this world when I know my ultimate home is in Heaven?
If you’re a follower of Christ, heaven is your real home, too. How are you preparing for that home while encouraging others to consider God’s work of salvation for them? The church is a place where believers should see other people leaning towards heaven and still living on this earth. I’m not sure I always do that? How are you doing at looking towards heaven while living in your temporary home?
