In a world marked by easy connectivity and rapid mobility, we tend to forget the beauty of the concept of “home.” Ask a typical young person today where home is and chances are they will not know what to tell you. Home could be where you spent most of your life, where you went to college or where you met your now husband. But mostly, when we speak of “home,” we are talking about the place of our childhood, sometimes even the physical place where you spent your formative years — a house,  city, a farm. But mostly, home is where your strongest affections still reside. As they like to say, “home is where your heart is.”

Followers of Christ often make the mistake of living as if the current zip code where they now receive their mail is their permanent dwelling place. Without realizing it, they make preparations to stay here and thus lose the joy of anticipation for heaven. In fact, heaven becomes an after thought, very much like a trailer attached to the luxury SUV in which you travel comfortably to your vacation spot. Instead of a dstination, heaven becomes a fading imagination; instead of longing for it and bringing the reality of it into our mostly mundane existence, we fix our eyes on the stuff of earth and fail to see the luxury of heaven. We live for 9 to 5 when we should be looking for eternity. 

Having been born overseas, I understand very well the reality of living in one place while longing for another. That, to me, is the ultimate calling of every Christ-follower — fully engaged here while fully excited about the hearafter. 

I still remember the first time our whole family went back to Brazil after being in the U.S. for a few years. For months we talked about it. We spent endless hours packing and made many trips to stores in order to buy gifts for our relatives. As we got closer to the big day, the excitement only grew. We were pulling many all-nighters, spreading things all over the house, being more lax with the children’s bed time, and (gasp!) eating microwaveable food. 

None of this, however, mattered to us. And for one simple reason: We were going home! And when you are going home you savor every moment leading up to the big trip with extraordinary anticipation. We talk about some of the things we will do as soon as we got there, we make lists of people we have to see, foods we have to eat, places we have to visit. We get simply consumed with the thought of going home and it’s okay.

Later, as I pondered on that experience, I thought: Wow, if this is true of going home to be reunited momentarily with our earthly family, how much more should we get excited about being forever united with our Father and our beloved Messiah, Jesus Christ? We should be shouting for joy right now at the thought of going to heaven and living today, as the old hymn says, as one who is passing through, only on business for the King. But are we?

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’” (Revelation 21:1-4). 

Pastor Ivanildo C. Trindade