"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18
Houses tell stories.
Like finding tattered pages from a book, I have read "excerpts" of the family who lived in my home before me. Written in the concrete of the basement floor are their names, Flo and Ed, along with a date: July 30, 1949. There are also footprints, smaller than mine, imbedded there which bade me to know more about these folks who once walked my floors.
With a bit of research, I discovered Flo was a kind-hearted second grade teacher. Her husband, Ed, was an amiable man who liked to work with his hands. They had one daughter, Kelly, whose name I found etched in the pavement out back, and they are buried in the Mayfield cemetery.
I imagine Flo, looking out at the back yard as she washed dishes, waving to Ed who walked by with yard tools. Perhaps Kelly was there, too, blowing bubbles in the sunshine. A happy family, I'd like to think, whose voices are no longer heard, just as mine will someday be silenced as well, because everything that is seen is temporary.
That being said, is anything really mine? My car will one day join others in the junkyard. The halls of my home will be occupied by others someday. Even my body is an earthly tent, a temporary house for my soul.
So, what's the point? Where do I belong? What do I have in this life?
What is unseen is eternal. My soul is my only possession that will last and, thanks be to Jesus, I know to Whom it belongs - to the One who has gone to prepare a place for it and has promised to come back and take me to be with Him where He dwells. "My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?" Jesus said in John 14: 2-3. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am."
When I get there, perhaps I will look out at the back yard and wave to passersby, who will return the gesture with a broad smile, because we will have arrived in that better country, a heavenly one. That is where I belong.
There's no place like home!
"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, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth...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 for them." Hebrews 11: 13, 16
