You might take a day trip to the mall, weekend away at the cottage, or week-long cruise. Perhaps you’ve trekked longer and further for a work project, study abroad, or mission trip. Whatever the endeavor, you likely had an aspiration or destination in mind.
Life is often compared to a journey, for obvious reasons. It begins and ends, with countless thrills and perils in between. Detours, delays, and disasters are common mishaps. Planning, navigating, and improvising are constant challenges.
In my pondering the other day, I concluded there are two types of travelers: voyagers and vagabonds. Voyagers set out on a long-term expedition with clear directions, plentiful supplies, and high hopes. Vagabonds, on the other hand, head out with no intention, follow the ever-shifting wind of opportunity, and make do with where they end up for the time being.
In a way, I see myself as both. I am certain about some things, unclear about others. I am equipped in some ways, unprepared in others. I know exactly where I’m going, yet have no idea where it will take me to get there.
Earth is my temporary home; Heaven is my eternal home. I’ve never been there, but one day I will live there forever. For now, I am a pilgrim and pioneer, among the throng of God’s redeemed.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” – Hebrews 12:1
This verse immediately follows a narrative of historic and heroic saints. They stumbled and side-tracked, but never lost sight of their glorious end.
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.” – 11:13-16
Jesus promised, “In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going … I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:2-4, 6).
I may look or feel lost at times, but my arrival is certain because I know the Way.
Abby
