The Vacation

Have you ever been on vacation and had the thought "This is wonderful but it is not home!"? My wife and I just got back from a mini vacation to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary. We stayed at a wonderful resort and lived like royalty. We spent most of our days sitting under an umbrella on the beach reading, talking or sleeping. We spent our evenings eating some of the best food we have ever tasted. It was wonderful but in the back of our minds we knew this was not home. We knew it would end and we would be going home. And going home is not a bad thing. We met some very nice people on our trip but our true friends were at home. We saw lots of kids swimming and having fun but they were not our kids, our kids were at home. We knew our time there was temporary, we knew we could not stay forever, we knew we had a permanent home waiting for us once we left the resort.

Last week as I was sitting on the balcony having my quiet time I thought about how applicable these thoughts are. There are a few verses that remind us of this:

Philippians 3: 20, 21 - 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

We are citizens of heaven, earth is simply a temporary residence.

II Corinthians 5: 8 - We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Home is not here, home is with the Lord.

I think that we sometimes get caught up in what this world has to offer. There are many nice amenities in this world. There are many things this world has to offer but there will always be a sense of "This is wonderful but it is not home!" for a Believer. Look at what the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes says:

Ecclesiastes 3: 11 - He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

He has set eternity in our hearts. A sense that there is more to this life, there is a longing for something this world cannot offer, a need this life cannot meet. As wonderful as life here may be it is not our home, it is not our final destination. In His infinite wisdom God has prepared a final destination, a home for us that will be unlike anything we can imagine. A home where we will find peace and security, love and fulfillment unlike anything this world has to offer.