We have been in Dallas a whole two weeks now and have thoroughly been enjoying our time here…and yet it just does not feel quite like “home.” Louisville is home. Immanuel Baptist church is home. Southern Seminary is home. A Woman’s Choice Resource Center is home. Home is where our friends and loved ones are…right?
We listened to a sermon a couple months ago where John Piper said that the Lord brings things into our lives to remind us that this world is not supposed to be our home. He brings in minor, and sometimes major, discomforts to teach us that we do not belong here. Saying goodbye to friends is not the way it’s supposed to be. Malaria, asthma, and migraines are not supposed to plague our bodies. Having Jesus come into our families and divide father against son and daughter against mother is also not the way it is supposed to be.
And yet, these sorrows force us to think about Heaven and what our future lives will be like. Well, since my life is filled with disappointments, I might as well dream about my promising future. Even though there are teary-eyed goodbyes here, we will live together forever in perfect relationship with God and one-another in Heaven. Even though our bodies are groaning for redemption here, they will be redeemed! Headaches will be a thing of the past, a passing thought, a “remember when” conversation where you have to think for a minute before you remember. And even when a loved one distances themselves from us because of our allegiance to Jesus, Heaven will be filled with countless loved ones who want nothing more than for us to grow in our love for Jesus.
These sorrows cause our hearts to ache for what our hearts should be aching for: Heaven. Not an easier life, not health, not all of our problems to be fixed; not everyone we have ever loved living on the same block. No, perfection cannot be achieved in this world. There will always be disappointments. There will always be let-downs. There will always be sickness. When our hearts ache, it is a reminder that we were not made for this world–we were made for a new perfected world where God and man will dwell together, where there is no more pain, no more tears, but only joy.
So, although it is painful to leave a town filled with so many rich and wonderful memories, the jolt of having to let go forces us to live for a better town. Praise the Lord for stripping away so many precious things so that we will long for things more precious.
For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. – Hebrews 11:14-16
