What do you think of when you think of home?
As many of you know I am in Chewelah, Washington on top of a mountain! Literarily! The view out every window is a breath taking view of this magnificent mountain range. It doesn’t look anything like Indiana. Where we have every kind of tree you can imagine, here there are mostly pine and aspen trees. I have not seen a bear at home, but here you could walk up on one at any time. Both places have deer in profusion. While my driveway is a quarter mile long, it is very flat. Here the driveway is the same length but nearly straight up! Now, if the truth be told I am a little homesick. I am missing out on the beautiful color changes, and the smell of burning leaves. But more than those things, I miss the things that tie me to the place. The people, the memories and the familiar surroundings of comfort and security. Why, I have to ask myself, when I am in such a beautiful place, would I be homesick? Because I am out of my environment, or out of place. Many children like my grandson and granddaughter, cling to a toy or a blanket for comfort. When I ask them why they like these things, one said it is cuddly, (more so than any other), the other said he liked the smell. What they didn’t say out loud, is that it gave them the sense of security and comfort of home. We carry pictures in our wallets to remind us of our loved ones, not that we will ever forget what they look like, but it brings us closer to home, to that comfort and security of love.
Christians feel the same way about heaven. We hunger for those who share our feelings of comfort and security. We long for the things of home, but not our earthly home, but our home in heaven for eternity. We even carry around a picture book (the Bible) so we can remember our family, and it brings us closer to home, and to that comfort and security of love.
As parents it up to us to teach our children about the heavenly home that can be theirs. Help them understand that, ‘for all have sinned’, and no one deserves heaven, but Jesus Christ died to save us from our sins. He has prepared a heavenly home for each and every one of his born again children. Keep them in the Word so they can understand what a wonderful father is waiting for us in heaven.
We as writers use our words like a paintbrush to express the feelings of hearth and home. No matter how hard we try, we cannot mimic the true feelings of love and security that emits from a happy home.
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1 Corinthians 2:9
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
II Corinthians 5:6-8
And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.
Luke 13:29