Mar. 5: Coming Home

Our oldest child returned from college to spend a week at home—Spring Break! Now, I’m ever so grateful that the choice was to spend some time at home with dear ol’ Mom and Dad instead of heading south to some warm, exotic place for the “holiday”. (It couldn’t just be a lack of finances, could it? Nah.)

The truth is, we’re pretty tight as a family and enjoy each other’s company (yea, that’s it). Whatever the motives, we are glad to have everyone home for a little while. There’s always something about coming home. We love being together as a family. For some, the idea of going home is not always good, depending on what kind of “baggage” exists, what kind of pain and harsh words may have been exchanged in the past. Some people dread going home.

One of my favorite chunks of scripture is in Hebrews, chapters Ten through Twelve. The writer, at a point in the tenth chapter, begins to encourage believer; "do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised…we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” (vv. 35-39)

In the next chapter we find what’s often called “The Roll Call of Faith”, those men and women of the Bible and of history who kept the faith, who persevered, who did not shrink in the face of difficulty, nor wilt under the heat of persecution. “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did…by faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death…By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family…By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going…By faith Abraham, even though he was past age--and Sarah herself was barren--was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise; and so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.”

We are told that “all these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth… If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one; Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city (a home) for them.” (vv. 13-16).

He continues describing the faith of Old Testament heroes, and then begins to describe those who at the time he was writing modern-day heroes—martyrs of the faith: “Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released… Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.”

Then in verse 40 he concludes, “God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” The plan will not be complete until people of faith, from all ages and all nations are united one day—now that’s a Home Coming! I don’t know about you, but I want to see that! I want to be part of that family!

Then he tells us how: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

~ Father, thank you for wanting to include me in Your Forever Family. Help me to persevere, to not grow weary and lose heart—help me to keep the faith; And when I stumble at times, thank You for keeping me even when I can’t keep it all together. Amen.