Home and Heaven

I am staying away from home while the repair issues I have mentioned in other posts are taken care of. We ended up replacing all the windows in the main house and the basement. More on that later.

I am in a place where I am comfortable, where there is company, "siblings" for my son and pie. But I am anxious to get home, see the windows, get unpacked from the move. Part of me is enjoying myself, part of me just wants to be back there.

Isn't it like that with Heaven? We seek to enjoy this life which is a gift from God, but part of us longs to be with Him more fully.

Here's a classic poem. It's in the public domain. While the message applies to those away from their earthly homes, it is also the sentiment of Christians whose hearts long for their heavenly home.

Home, Sweet Home
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;
Oh, give me my lowly thatched cottage again!
The birds singing gayly, that come at my call --
Give me them -- and the peace of mind, dearer than all!
Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

I gaze on the moon as I tread the drear wild,
And feel that my mother now thinks of her child,
As she looks on that moon from our own cottage door
Thro' the woodbine, whose fragrance shall cheer me no more.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

How sweet 'tis to sit 'neath a fond father's smile,
And the caress of a mother to soothe and beguile!
Let others delight mid new pleasures to roam,
But give me, oh, give me, the pleasures of home.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

To thee I'll return, overburdened with care;
The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there;
No more from that cottage again will I roam;
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
Home, home, sweet, sweet, home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

John Howard Payne


Last Sunday was Ascension Sunday, the day we celebrate Jesus return to Heaven. He, too, must have longed for Home. Someday He will return to take us there. We should love life and our time here as we wait, but "Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus."


Have a blessed day.