By Grace Shiflett
Home. Just the word makes me have all the wonderful feelings. I think of peace, rest, anticipation, loved ones, safety, and the list goes on and on. These thoughts warm my heart when I think of home.
But throughout the course of our life, “home” as we know it can change. Maybe from the loss of a loved one. Maybe it is from family division or the need to relocate. Not all changes are because of bad circumstances. I am simply saying that our earthly home can change. Sometimes it’s just from the need to start afresh.
The older I get, the more I find myself longing for home. Not the place where I was raised or the various places my family has lived. I’m talking about my final home - heaven, the place Jesus has gone to prepare. Heaven is where our faith will become sight! There we will see face-to-face the One who died for us. Heaven - the sweet home of the soul. There will be no more disappointments, no tears, or sin. There we will be reunited with loved ones and saints who have gone on before us. What a glad reunion day when we get to worship our Savior for all eternity!
To be honest, we can never imagine how magnificent the place is that God has prepared for us His children. I am so thankful for the promise that He is coming again someday to take us “home!” According to the Apostle Paul, we can comfort one another with the reminder of our future home. "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." I Thessalonians 4:17, 18
We should be thinking about and talking about heaven constantly. It is our comfort and hope for born-again Christians. "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;" Titus 2:13
Are you looking for His appearing? If you are, are you looking with excitement or dread? "But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." Romans 8:25
Let me encourage you to meditate on your future, permanent home - heaven. Let heaven be a common topic in your conversation. Tell your friends and family all about that home that is prepared for those who love the Lord. In these desperate times in our world, we need to be reminded of the hope of heaven more than ever before! We can be filled with excitement because this unstable world is not our home. Let us look toward heaven with anticipation knowing that the Lord is coming soon to take us to heaven - our perfect home!
More Reading: John 14:1-6; I Thessalonians 4:16-18; I Corinthians 2:9; II Timothy 4:8; Hebrews 11:16
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