Saturday, August 8, 2009
Hebrews 11:9a, 16a By faith [Abraham] made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents . . . Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one.
THINGS YOU MIGHT SAY WHEN YOU GO CAMPING:
"I WANT TO GO HOME!"
The tent is leaking. Your sleeping bag is wet. And, on top of everything, you have a bad case of poison ivy. Are you having fun yet!? Or are you saying: I WANT TO GO HOME!?
Abraham was a camper who wanted to go home. Like the Israelite campers of Moses' time, he, too, lived in tents. Like them, he was yearning for a country of his own. Camping is great for awhile, but there's no place like home.
But upon what home did Abraham cast a longing eye? It was, of course, heaven. The cherished hymn says, "Heaven is my home." The deepest longing of Abraham's heart was to be with his Lord and Savior, faraway from this world of sin with all its evil, strife, and heartbreak.
We can relate to Abraham. Like him, we know Christ by faith as the One Who has redeemed us from sin, death, and hell. Like Abraham, we long to see Christ with our own two eyes. We want to be home with Him, and finally done with this tear-stained life. Like the saints of all time, we long for the day when "there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain" (Revelation 21:4).
Chin up, dear camping partner! When the work God has given us to do is finished, He will call us home. Confidently we wait, knowing Christ's work to redeem us is finished. Nothing can stop us from finally reaching our heavenly destination. With hope filled faith we say with the hymn writer:
"Forever with the Lord!" Amen! so let it be,
Life from the dead is in that word, 'Tis immortality.
Here in the body pent, Absent from Him, I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent A day's march nearer home.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 616:1-2)
