Hungry for Home

“Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord”—2 Corinthians 5:8.

Home. Anyone who has ever had to travel for work or gone on vacation knows how great it is to return home. There is something wonderful about coming home—the familiarity, smells, routine, along with the knowledge that there is rest waiting encourages the heart. There isn’t the constant going and going, moving about, adjusting to new beds, people, or places. There is complete peace and rest.

For the Christian, this world is not home. Heaven is. Heaven is the place we long for, where our earthly homes are only shadows. Heaven is where Christ is. It is not a place of puffy white crowds, but of unspeakable familiarity and newness simultaneously. It is a place free from pain, where all of our tears are wiped away, where there is no night, where death, suffering, pain, and persecution have been removed and we see Jesus in the fullness of who He is. Heaven is only heaven because He is there. Which is why unbelievers would find heaven completely unpalatable. If one refuses to love Jesus on earth, why would they want heaven where He is the center and reason for its very existence? No, the only destination suitable for the one who refuses to love Christ is hell, where one can live apart from the one they refused to love on earth.

Jesus is the reason for heaven. We, His creation, will be able to see Him who is our Creator and our Sustainer, our reason for being, and the great Lover of our souls. We will see Jesus. We will see Him who created us for His glory, who upholds the universe by the word of His power, and who bears the marks of redemption on His glorified body for all eternity. It is only in heaven where we will live in the knowledge that all wrongs were righted, all justice mete out according to the impartial Judge of heaven, and where we will truly experience pleasure—which the pleasures of this world were only foretastes.

Paul hungered for heaven. He wanted it more than he wanted this life. He hungered for the day when he would be away from the body, but at home with the Lord. His heart was in heaven with Jesus. He wanted to be in the presence of Christ, His Lord and Savior. He knew that this world was not his home, which is why He could write,  

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better”—Philippians 1:21-23.

Do you hunger for heaven? Is it your home? Can you say, “To live is Christ and to die is gain”? Would you rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord? Do you long for the day when you will leave earthly tent of the body to enter into glory? I hope and pray that we all might long for heaven—the day when we will see Jesus face to face. If you do not hunger for heaven, ask yourself, why? What makes this world more attractive than the next? The answer may reveal fear, a lack of faith or lack of understanding. Ask God to bring to the surface anything that is keeping you from hungering for heaven as your home and then make whatever changes He tells you to make. And may He be praised because of it. Amen.