“We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.” —Philippians 3:20 NLT
My granddaughter Allie is a little homebody.
She will come to visit Cathe and me, and will be so excited (we have lots of toys and fun things for the grandkids to do), but without warning, Allie will just say “home” and walk out the door!
Have you ever felt that way? Like everything this world offers just leaves you cold? We each have a longing deep inside of us for “home.” This world is not our home, but it is our location at present. One day, we will truly go home.
The Bible says of our lives on Earth, “We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on Earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace” (1 Chronicles 29:15 NLT).
When you become a Christian, you become a citizen of Heaven, your real home. Philippians 3:20 says, “But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for Him to return as our Savior” (NLT).
We long for something that this Earth can never deliver on. That’s why we will always be a bit “out of tune” with this world and all it celebrates—because we, as followers of Jesus, know there is something more. Much more.
Heaven should draw us, engage us, pull us in its direction. We should long for it. As Augustine wrote, “You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.”
Thus, we see this world for what it is: empty, temporal, and passing.
E. M. Bounds said, “Heaven ought to draw and engage us. Heaven ought to so fill our hearts and hands, our conversations, our character, and our features, that all would see that we are foreigners, strangers to this world. The very atmosphere of this world should be chilling to us and noxious, its suns eclipsed and its companionship dull and insipid. Heaven is our native land and home to us. And death to us is not the dying hour, but the birth hour!”
