An Eternal Home
What is home? Are we at home in this life or are we looking for something more?
Anglican theologian C.S. Lewis famously said, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).
We are restless for home. We are restless for God. We are not quite at home in this world. Our most intimate place we call “home” is not our true and eternal home.
Saint Augustine said it this way, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” (Saint Augustine).
When we trade the lesser loves of this life for the love of Jesus and serve him, we find our true home in his presence.
In Mark’s gospel account, “Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.’” (Mark 10:29-30, ESV).
We have an eternal home with Jesus, now “and in the age to come eternal life.” There is nothing we do not have, and there is nothing we can give up in this life for God’s purposes, which God will not restore to us in this life and in the age to come. We have an eternal home with Jesus.
May we anticipate all God has in store for us in this life and for eternity as we make our eternal home with him.
A Prayer for Joy at the End of Life, by Miles Coverdale: “Lord Jesus, be mindful of your promise. Think of us, your servants, and when we shall depart, speak to our spirits these loving words: “Today you shall be with me in joy.” O Lord Jesus Christ, remember us, your servants who trust in you, when our tongues cannot speak, when the sight of our eyes fails, and when our ears are stopped. Let our spirits always rejoice in you and be joyful about our salvation, which you, through your death, have purchased for us. Amen.” (#110., Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
Photo by Scott Webb, from Unsplash.
