Going Home
Going home: This life is just a temporary stay
After many years working overseas, I recently returned to my home country. The process of leaving had many ups and downs and while I enjoyed living and working there, that country just was not home. I never really felt at ease. I always had another country’s passport. Every time I had to show my passport to the authorities, I was reminded that my current residence was not home.
Travelling home, as the distance between my flight and my departure point increased, there was the real sense that I was going to a much better place, despite the supposed advantages I had while working as an expatriate. Once back home, I felt a sense of belonging.
This made me think of our short time on the Earth and the flight to our ultimate destination, heaven. Jesus spoke to His disciples just before His crucifixion and told them that He was going to do something very special – He was going to prepare a home for them:
1Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2In 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. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. – John 14:1-4
First, He refers to His “Father’s house”. This is heaven, and in heaven He has prepared a place just for us. For the disciples listening, this was still in the future, but for us today, it has already been done. He then tells them that he will come and fetch us so that we can be where He is. What a wonderful promise this is. Paul knew of this as well. Towards the end of his life, he wrote a letter to his protégé, Timothy, and told him this:
6For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. – 2 Timothy 4:6-8
Paul is preparing to go home. He says his “departure is at hand”. It is almost like that final phase of pre-boarding at the airport where you have your boarding pass and passport (which you check a hundred times, just to make sure it is still there) and through the glass walls of the airport terminal you see your flight waiting for you. He confidently states that he fought the fight according to the rules, completed the job, and never gave up. For him the reward was waiting in heaven, his true home.
The question is whether you have met all the prerequisites to board the flight. Do you have a valid pasport, ticket, and boarding pass? Have you received a ticket to heaven because you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ to come and collect you and take you home? If you have received Him according to John 1:12, then your ticket is safe in your pocket. If your passport is that of your home country, heaven, then you are good to go. The Bible is clear that this life, here on Earth, is temporary and that we should not invest too much time and effort in it so that we are chained to it. Paul was aware of this:
1For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. – 2 Corinthians 5:1
Paul uses the example of the tabernacle in the wilderness, which was just a big tent. A tent is a temporary place to shelter in while we are on vacation or camping out. It is not meant to be permanent. It would later be replaced by the temple. Paul contrasts this to the building of God, which Jesus has already prepared, which is going to last forever. In the King James Version, the word “dissolved” is used to describe the temporary shelter we have on the Earth. To dissolve means to be gradually absorbed and disappear. Your tent on Earth needs constant maintenance, and eventually the material will be torn, and the tent pegs ripped out. This is evident when you look at your body and notice the process of ageing. Just as you are waiting for a permanent home, your body is waiting for its own eternal state, immortality. See 1 Corinthians 15:50-57 and Philippians 3:21 for Paul’s description of the change from mortality to immortality. Since flesh and blood cannot enter God’s domain, heaven, it must be changed first. This happens the moment Jesus collects you, whether at natural death, or the rapture, whichever comes first.
Our temporary home on the Earth may have some comforts, but compared to our permanent home, it falls short in a big way. It requires constant maintenance (Ecclesiastes 10:18); it requires constant guarding (Matthew 24:43); and life in general is imperfect as we fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Our permanent home needs no maintenance as it is eternal (2 Corinthians 5:1); and we are in God’s presence, where perfect love is present (1 John 4:16-19).
Too many people are so tied to this life that it makes it impossible for them to break with it and leave it behind. Are you so in love with your property – house, car, luxuries, works of art, and money – that you cannot contemplate leaving any of it behind? Then maybe you are not ready for heaven where none of these things will exist, be important, or required. Just as the house I lived in while working overseas was never “home” when compared to the property in my country, in the same way our lives on Earth are not home. Home is where the heart is, and my heart is with Jesus, who is now in heaven, and who will come to take us from this Earth and take is to where He is. Paul’s instruction is clear:
1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. – Colossians 3:1-4
Conclusion
The message is clear. If we claim to belong to Jesus Christ, then we should not be bothered with this temporary life, but instead focus on heaven. However, this does not mean we should not live a meaningful life, as we are called to set an example of Godly living. This, week, consider that it may be your last on the Earth. Have you been issued with a passport that guarantees you access to heaven and eternal life with Jesus? If not, ask Him for one today.