Whether it is returning from a weekend getaway or making an extended visit to what my father used to call “the old stomping grounds”, there is always something special about going home. Familiar landmarks divide the trip into manageable stages. Directional signs to towns never visited serve as mile-markers along the way. Feelings of anticipation grow and we feel good when we have completed the journey home.
As Christians, we talk about going home. Poets touch our heart-strings with words describing heaven as the home of the soul. Songwriters have put such sentiments to music, lifting our spirits in sweet melody. We are most blessed to have dwelt upon such thoughts of home.
The Christian life is a journey home. Home is not only a place—it is the people we associate with that place. We long to see our Savior face-to-face and dwell in the light of His loving presence forever. Perhaps, there are some landmarks along the way—stages of spiritual growth in keeping with Christ and His word. Such landmarks must be seen by faith, for we have never traveled this path before (2 Cor. 5:7; Hb. 6:19-20).
We do not know the hour of our departure nor the day of Christ’s return. But we do know that “salvation is nearer to us” than it has ever been before (Rm. 13:11). And, we do know that “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment…” (Hb. 9:27).
Want a fresh look at growing old? As Christians, physical infirmity might be looked at as a marker along our journey home, for faith tells us that we should “not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). Aches and pains associated with growing older, might be considered landmarks by which we gauge, in part, our progress toward our eternal home. “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). In this house, “we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven” (vs. 2). Because of these and similar promises, our ambition in life must be to please the Lord (2 Cor. 5:9-10). We shall stand before Him in judgment and, if proven faithful, will be welcomed home (Mt. 25:21).