Gifts of Lent: Remember this world is not our Home

“This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through” is the first line of the sweet song made famous by Jim Reeves, but written by Albert Brumley in 1919.

When I’m traveling, I often think of the proverb: “Home is where the heart is.” It’s not that I am longing for home—though sometimes I do. Most often when I think of this adage, it’s because I am amazed how quickly I can feel “at home” when I’m not. We used to load up our kids for thousands-mile camping trips, and our tent (and later pop-up camper) quickly felt like home. Everything that I cherished most in the world was contained in those canvas walls. The value of the contents transcended the container.

Jesus said, “Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven…For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)  So where I invest my treasure (time, fortune, gifts), that is my True Home.

Jim Elliot, martyred missionary, wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” He knew that nothing gathered on earth will last, except that which was done for God, for eternal purposes. He gave his life to bring an isolated South American tribe the good news that God loved them and was reaching out to them through Jesus Christ.  He risked everything to make a deposit in a heavenly bank account: his True Home. It was a risk calculated with forever in mind. And it paid off: the men who killed him are now celebrating with him, treasure indeed.

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.” (John 14:2-4)

This Lenten season may we remember that:

 “This world’s where I am, but this world’s not my home.”

Heaven Changes Everything by Big Daddy Weave