Post by MIRIAM JACOB on Mar 25, 2008 1:01:22 GMT -5
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me….
I go to prepare a place for you…. that where I am, there you may be also”
(John 14:1, 2, 3).
I’m writing this a little early this week because I’m going out of town for a few days, first for a business meeting in another state, and then to lead a retreat in the mountains for the women in my home church. I am pleased and honored to do both, but I must also confess that I’m already homesick—and I haven’t even left yet!
I believe God placed that longing for home within each of us, and it’s a longing that drives us throughout our lives. Sadly, most of the world’s inhabitants will refuse to recognize that longing for what it really is—a homesickness for heaven and for the One who dwells there—and will therefore waste their lives trying to “plug up the hole” with other things. Whether those things consist of financial wealth or meaningful relationships or successful careers, or drugs or alcohol or crime, none will fulfill the longing that only a personal and lasting relationship with God can produce. The Father’s heart is so great and so filled with love for us that He not only provided a way for us to come home to Him by accepting His Son, Jesus, as our personal Savior, but He also calls to us daily, placing people in our paths to speak of His love and to offer the invitation to come home.
Many of us have just celebrated the memory of what Jesus did for us so many years ago—not just His death, but also His resurrection. Yes, Jesus died and rose again—for us—and now He has gone home to prepare a place for us so that we too can spend eternity in the presence of the Father. For ultimately, dear ones, our homesickness is not so much for a place as it is for the One who dwells in that place and invites us to join Him there.
If you haven’t already accepted that invitation, please don’t let another day of unfulfilled longing and homesickness pass you by without doing so. And if you have, please join me in rejoicing that one day very soon, we will be home. In the meantime, let’s dedicate every moment we have left here on this alien planet to bringing as many people with us as possible!
© KATHI MACIAS
www.kathimacias.com
I go to prepare a place for you…. that where I am, there you may be also”
(John 14:1, 2, 3).
I’m writing this a little early this week because I’m going out of town for a few days, first for a business meeting in another state, and then to lead a retreat in the mountains for the women in my home church. I am pleased and honored to do both, but I must also confess that I’m already homesick—and I haven’t even left yet!
I believe God placed that longing for home within each of us, and it’s a longing that drives us throughout our lives. Sadly, most of the world’s inhabitants will refuse to recognize that longing for what it really is—a homesickness for heaven and for the One who dwells there—and will therefore waste their lives trying to “plug up the hole” with other things. Whether those things consist of financial wealth or meaningful relationships or successful careers, or drugs or alcohol or crime, none will fulfill the longing that only a personal and lasting relationship with God can produce. The Father’s heart is so great and so filled with love for us that He not only provided a way for us to come home to Him by accepting His Son, Jesus, as our personal Savior, but He also calls to us daily, placing people in our paths to speak of His love and to offer the invitation to come home.
Many of us have just celebrated the memory of what Jesus did for us so many years ago—not just His death, but also His resurrection. Yes, Jesus died and rose again—for us—and now He has gone home to prepare a place for us so that we too can spend eternity in the presence of the Father. For ultimately, dear ones, our homesickness is not so much for a place as it is for the One who dwells in that place and invites us to join Him there.
If you haven’t already accepted that invitation, please don’t let another day of unfulfilled longing and homesickness pass you by without doing so. And if you have, please join me in rejoicing that one day very soon, we will be home. In the meantime, let’s dedicate every moment we have left here on this alien planet to bringing as many people with us as possible!
© KATHI MACIAS
www.kathimacias.com