Tidings for Tuesday
For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you. Deuteronomy 12:9
Some days are better than others, right? Some days food tastes better, the weather is perfect, the health is good, life takes on a special glow, and we wonder, can it get any better than this?
Consider the Israelites, safe from the Egyptian armies, fresh from victories over the kings around them, feeding on manna and more of the Lord’s provision. Things were pretty good, and yet, they knew they were not yet in the land that was promised to them. They could see it across the river, they could delight in the accounts of spies coming back to tell of the beautiful homes that awaited them. But they were not there yet. And they wanted to be there.
As we settle into the comforts of earth, let us not be deceived, this is not our final destination, this is not the blessing that God promised us. If things are going well here, so much the better. But everything about us is temporary. And if we possess the capability when we get to Heaven to look back on the comforts of earth, we will surely laugh at how paltry and crude were our blessings here.
No, we are not home. We are like the elderly missionary and his wife who were standing on the deck as they approached the shores of an American city for a well-deserved furlough. As the missionary saw a great welcoming party for a famous political leader who was returning to the US from a trip abroad, he sighed and sadly said to his wife, ‘Nothing like that for us’. ‘Of course not,’ she wisely replied, ‘We are not home yet’.
There is a welcome awaiting you, dear Saint! Better than anything you have ever heard of here. You are not home yet. But home is being prepared for you. -Jim MacIntosh