All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have the opportunity to return. Hebrews 11:13-15 NIV
Where is this country of our own? And what is this place we are headed to that is so compelling that it feels impossible to return to the old one?
Moses could have turned the Israelites back home where at least they were assured of a full stomach. Noah could have taken a bit more of a wait-and-see attitude about the weather. Abraham could have turned back down the mountain with his precious boy, assuming God hadn’t meant exactly what He said – there must have been some misunderstanding.
But they freely chose to press on into something they couldn’t possibly understand.
What causes a person to trade in the comfort of familiarity for something unknown and unknowable? I think of Ruth in this regard, pleading with Naomi to allow her to stay in the foreign land with her:
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”…. Ruth 1:16-18 NIV
We may not understand this choice, but we really believe we are headed into a Kingdom. So, how does this Kingdom come?
We believe our home is with our Lord, now and forever. Our familiarity with home now on this earth, may suggest that the struggle itself is to rather live differently than what is familiar and what comes naturally. Our home is surely with the Carpenter, beside whom we hammer away daily at our imperfections. We leave behind the old land of our repetitive mistakes, trying anew to hew our character more closely to his model, to reach closer to that new land.
So ultimately, we prepare to leave this earthly home behind as well. Our real home is the better country: the heavenly city prepared for us by Our Lord.
This week, some music to remind you of the joy at the end of weary travel: I see the other country
I see the other side
Do not be afraid of this earthly city
Do not be afraid when the pharaohs nigh
by Carie Grant
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