I have just started teaching a new Bible study series on Heaven. And last week, we explored the penetrating question, “Are you homesick for heaven?” I started my remarks with the statement that we all were made for another world. This experience we are currently having on planet earth is a preamble for the real thing. It is the foyer, the entryway, the front porch to our real life!

This is not our home!  But we sure do act like it is.

When we are at home, we treat things as if they are permanent. We settle into those things we know best. We cherish our favorite chair and love our big TV. Our refrigerator is filled with our snack choices. Our bookshelves hold our cherished volumes. We have and enjoy a lot of “stuff.”

But think about the last time you took a vacation trip. Likely you just grabbed a bag, put in some essentials and off you went. You did not pack your easy chair or a TV or your refrigerator. You did not tuck all your favorite books into that bag. You just took what you really needed.

So if this isn’t our real home, why do we keep trying to make this “interim” life feel so permanent? Or another way of asking that question is this: “Why aren’t we homesick for heaven?”

I have two possible answers for that question. One is that we are simply not informed enough about our eternal home. We haven’t taken the time to study what God’s Word has to say about our permanent home with the Lord.

Or, secondly, we are quite simply just too attached here. We cling to what we can see, touch and hold. Our faith is lacking.

Maybe this week we should all do something about our misplaced focus and increase our homesickness for heaven. Let’s hold our “stuff” lightly… easy come, easy go. And let’s dive into the good book and increase our understanding of eternity. (Here’s one idea: I just started a new Zoom class on Heaven. Email me and I will be happy to get you into that class.)

We all need to be able to declare the words of Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.!”