This World Is Not My Home

My personality is well suited for engineering.  I want to know the details.  I don’t just want to know what my computer does, but how it does it.  Maybe you are not that person, but I believe most of us want an explanation for things.  Although I must admit the older I get, and perhaps in turn the closer to heaven I get, my love for that has maybe waned a tad.

But we want to be able to understand the who, what, when, where and why. That is just how humans think.  We “logically” try to use reason to explain things to our own satisfaction, like why God works in the world the way He does.  When we can’t figure out God’s plans, we are left a bit confused if not downright frustrated.  The scriptures do give us an answer - God’s ways are higher than our ways.

“ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”. Isaiah 55:8-9

Here’s a thought to ponder:  Can I accept what God says to be true, even if I don’t fully understand it?

From God’s perspective, He is the Creator and has been gracious to us.  Not because we are worthy or deserving of His favor.  In fact, we often resist Him and His plans.  God works in His own ways to accomplish His ends (Ephesians 1:11).  Ways that are often difficult for us to comprehend with human reasoning.

These thoughts got me thinking of an area where human logic fails us.  Specifically, why this life never truly fulfills us.  

Why is it that no matter what we have here in this world, it's somehow not enough?  I believe God provides us with the answer. First, hear what C.S. Lewis says about why we naturally long for more:

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were not meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.
If that is so, I must take care on the one hand never to despise, or be unthankful for these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.” Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

The writer of Hebrews sums it up like this, “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” Hebrews 13:14.  Clearly, we are not intended to find permanent satisfaction in this life.

Even before Christ, Abraham also knew there was something better ahead when this life is over. "For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" Hebrews 11:10 

Earth is God's creation, yet cannot be compared to heaven's glory. There are many mysteries of God that cannot be understood, but there is one thing that is sure.  Our permanent home is prepared for us in heaven by the One who made it possible to dwell there and who gives us the assurance that He will return to take us home.  I am grateful for this life, but this life is not all there is because "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." Ecclesiastes 3:11

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In 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. And 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.” John 14:1-3

“Father, we may have many homes in this life—in childhood, as young adults, in marriage, with children, in retirement, at an assisted living or nursing homes–but all are temporal and not truly our home. These homes on earth may have special and dear places in our heart, but Lord, instill in us a longing to be home with You.  Help us live righteously in this world and look towards that city that you built for us where moth and rust do not corrupt and where there will be no more tears.” Amen



Credit: Ron Kelley