David Ralph

Heading Home

I have been away from home for 45 of the last 49 days.  It seems like forever.   Tommorw I head home.   I am so looking forward to it.   Knowing that I would be going home eventually,  has had a influence on how I approahed most days over the last month.  Although I have been blessed to be staying at an awesome home that has an incredible view in a place where the weather is great, I want to go home tomorrow.  Home is where the people I love the most are.  Home is where life is at its best.    Home is where I belong.  The reality of home makes a difference.  For example, there were some days over the last month when I felt a little  lonely, but I knew I was going home, so I could handle it.   Looking forward to going home made all the difference in so many ways.

I got thinking about home and I got thinking about heaven, which will be our eventual and eternal home.  The thought of going home to heaven when I take my last breath on this planet should influence everyday of my life – just like going home tomorrow has.  When life gets hard or difficult, when I feel lonely, when things don’t make sense, when I hit a “wall”, when there is relational heartache, when the diagnosis is terminal, the hope of going home to heaven should have an influence on how I handle these life realities or how I respond to them.  Shouldn’t the reality of heaven cast it’s shadow over this life and make a difference to the way I approach life?  It will be a place where all the struggles and challenges I face now will never happen again.  It is a place where there will be no more pain – no more tears – no more heartache – no more brokenness.  It will be a place of renuion where I will reconnect for all eternity with those I loved – whose graveside I have stood at. 

The challenge,  I know heaven is my reality because of the promises of the Bible, but sometimes it doesn’t provide the hope that it should.  Sometimes I forget that it will be my reality.  Sometimes the here and now seems more important and I get so caught up in it.  Sometimes life gets a little overwhelming and I am filled with fear and doubt and I forget that someday I am heading home.  My hope and prayer is that the longing for going home tomorrow might so home influence my thinking about my eternal home – or at least remind me of it a little more often.