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I’ve been thinking about “home” a little bit recently. We were visiting family this weekend who live about an hour and a half from our home. I was thinking about how if we lived there, it wouldn’t ever quite feel like home. At least, to me. It would feel like we were always visiting. Never home.
A friend of ours is a native of Argentina, but also a citizen of Italy (and lived there for several years) and now resides here in New York. (Married to a US citizen.) So she has many homes, and in a way, often feels like she’s “not home”.
Home is interesting. It’s definitely a location, but it’s also a state of mind. The Bible says we who follow Jesus are foreigners. That we are never quite home. We read about the first disciples of Jesus today (the boys and I) who left everything at Jesus’ simple invitation to, “Come follow me.” He had no home, they had no home. They were travelers. Foreigners. Strangers.
Jen & I have also noticed recently how different we are. We are not like most of the people we know. Our priorities, what we want our family to live like, be like, look like. We’re different. We feel, quite often, like foreigners.
So, how do you endure that? I guess the way you do is to know that no matter where we are in this life we are always foreigners. We are never home. We belong somewhere else, and until we leave this life or Jesus comes back for us, we’ll always feel a little homesick.
With all the burdens of this foreign place that I am bearing lately, I am definitely “longing for home”. For peace. Rest. But, that time has not come yet.
For now, I enjoy the “home” that God has given me. My beautiful wife, and five amazing kids. And our little yellow house. 🙂 Oh that life were only that simple.
Perhaps it can be.
This “foreigner” idea is totally ridiculous to me, nor do I think it has a scriptural basis. I don’t think the Bible says man is a foreigner on earth. I do think the Bible states that man was made by God from earth, to live on earth without and end to that arrangement – man supposedly broke the deal. Even so, neither breaking the deal, nor the coming of Christ appears to biblically change the fact that earth is man’s home. Further, the whole idea that Christians are just getting through their time on earth waiting for a better afterlife in a supposed heaven kinda POs me…but then, there’s a whole buncha crap about the heaven concept that makes no sense, biblically or otherwise, to me.
-heent
p.s. This rant is not personally directed at you Greg…you’re just the trigger 🙂
Heeeeeent!
Actually, I’m really glad you chimed in on this. Cause, even as I wrote what I wrote, while it sort of rang true, you’ll note that I did not have any “references”. I actually did a moderately extensive search of the scriptures for such statements. They were definitely less than convincing.
What I found actually seemed to suggest more of the “foreigner” concept for the nation of Israel, as God sent them on many “temporary” pilgrimages (or whatever) until they “entered rest” which symbolically occurred when they reached “the Promised Land” and eventually really occurred for all who believe when Jesus died on the cross.
(You started the theology discussion, don’t forget…) 😉
SO yeah… I totally agree with the notion that life here is unimportant is an annoying way that some Christians look at life. I think you know I am not one of them. Sorry if this post suggested that.
One scripture I just thought of is where Paul says that (super butchered paraphrase) “now we see in a glass darkly (KJV I think) … but then we’ll see fully” [found it… 1 Cor 13]
Anyway, there certainly is backing for the idea that life will be more of what it is intended to be when we are no longer bound by a sinful, corrupted “flesh”. (Which I don’t think means just our body, but maybe…)
Sorry to trigger (for the annoyance factor) but always glad to hear from you 🙂
I totally agree, that Heaven will be a new earth full of beautiful garden of edens and we, all us children of God, will dance at Heaven’s feet of hovering sunshine and happiness. There will be joy, peace, and laughter, all the things EVERYONE, who knows the Trinity, LOVES most! And MOST OF ALL our Father will fill our voids eternally!!!
we will NEVER need again.
“Heaven” is so vague, nebulous, arbitrary, subjective, indefinite, unproven…how/why would anyone possibly hang their hopes on that. Humans can’t experience joy without the contrast of sorrow – seriously, how could you know you are happy without knowing when you’re sad? And we can’t just say we’ll remember what sadness was like, because with time, we do forget what either side is like if we don’t get a dose of it once-in-a-while. If there will be no sorrow in heaven and only joy, then heaven cannot be experienced by humans. If we will no longer “suffer” the human condition (and if we’re “good” and make it to the non-dark-side of the afterlife), then we will have to exist in conditions we can’t possibly understand as humans. Why would you hold faith for something we can’t possibly comprehend, just trusting that it will be wonderous beyond belief? That doesn’t just fit the definition of a scam, it’s the ultimate scan. Yet generalized Christian interpretation of the Bible explains the afterlife to us in good and bad (and neutral for some). When I ask myself, “What type of “creature” only experiences joy, all the time and do I want to live that type of existence and ETERNALLY?” I can only determine that such a creature must not have a mind of its own and that’s probably not for me.
-heent
Just adding my 2 cents after lots of vouyerism….
I will, at least for myself, admit that I do not know all what heaven will be like or how we’ll cope with it. But that in its core is what FAITH is. Its believing that God has a divine plan and that this life is temporary.
Even if no one had ever said, “Here is a Bible, its about God, Jesus, and His plan for you” I believe that anyone can look at the world around them and know instinctively that there is a greater power, a designer that exists for us.
I understand Greg’s initial point. That this life is temporary. And we’ll never be able to understand all that exists beyond us. We dont explain “life” or complex things to children, because its beyond them. We piece-meal it, and give them parts of the story til they can grasp it as they get older. Its the same with God. If He explained everything now, our brains just couldnt comprehend it.
dude, home is where your underwear is …
Also, I like what C.S. Lewis writes … we’re foreigners in this land because the reality to come is MORE real than now … but it’s also what we’re in now that will be redeemed. So it’s the already but the not-yet.
If you can figure out what that means, you may have had too much to drink. But then again, theology is best discussed over a pint … Just a couple of pennies from a seminarian …