December 13th, 20

JOURNEYING HOME

Today’s readings are Hebrews 12 – 13 and Jude 1.  We are reading from the New Living Translation.

Homeward.  We are going home.  That’s what the writer of Hebrews reminds us.  

For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come. (Heb 13:14 NLT)

We’re making our migration home,  through the seasons of life.  This week I’ve watched some Sandhill cranes out in a nearby harvested corn field.  These migratory birds have a homing device built right into their being and it leads them back home. Our journey, like theirs, can be perilous.   In our great soul migration we will experience disgrace from the world and discipline from a loving father, and we have to endure. We have to demonstrate endurance in order to get home.  But if we are in Christ there is something in each and every one of us that is drawing us Home.

Those cranes sometimes migrate all the way across the Bering Strait to Siberia, to their mating grounds, where it all began. When the Winter ends they’ll make their journey back.  These days in December are some of the longest nights and coldest days of the year, but starting December 21st the days will slowly grow longer and the nights shorter.  These amazing cranes will begin to make their way home, drawn by an inexplicable call, some kind of life within them, drawing them back home.  And so it is with us.  

You may be in a winter season where the nights are long and the days are too short but don’t forget that you are on a journey home.

The writer of Hebrews wants to remind all of us that this world is not our permanent home.  

So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore. For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.

Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. (Heb 13:13-15 NLT)

Let’s keep going forward, setting our focus and heart on our permanent home.

You are loved!