I once heard of a little boy who was on a train running the long trip between two Western cities. It was a hot, dusty day, very uncomfortable for traveling, and that particular ride was perhaps the most uninteresting day's journey in the whole land. But the little fellow sat patiently watching the fields and the fences hurrying by, until a motherly old lady, leaned forward to ask with some sympathy in her voice, "Aren't you tired of the long ride, dear, and the dust and the heat?" The little boy looked up brightly, and smiled, "Yes, ma'am, a little. But I don't mind it much, because my father is going to meet me when I get to the end of it.” What a beautiful thought it is that when life seems wearisome, monotonous, and sometimes filled with trouble that we can look forward hopefully and trustingly and not mind much because our Father, too, will be waiting to meet us at our journey's end!
David’s psalm here is a confession that he, like all his forefathers before him, was just a misplaced traveler in this world. He had been promised a better tomorrow, just as Abraham had when he was called out of Ur of the Chaldees, as Paul tells us in Hebrews 11:8-10 – “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
We as saints have that same promise. We also look for that city whose builder and maker is God. The Apostle Peter reminds us again, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts (1 Peter 2:11) And the Scriptures remind us constantly that one of these days this sojourn will be over, and we’ll go home to be with Christ. John 14:2-3 tells us, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” One day soon we will go home to be with Him. And we have a heavenly Father that will meet us there at our long journey's end.
Home Sweet Home
The other day as I returned Home from a business trip,
My heart was filled with great relief, A smile did cross my lip.
“It’s good indeed to be back home,” I thought with joyful bent.
“There’s no place quite like home sweet home,” As through the door I went.
And then my mind did take a turn And wander just a bit.
I thought of how we’ll one day feel, When this old world we quit.
For this is but a journey long For those who trust in God,
And we are only travelers here Upon this earthly sod.
The day will come, ‘tis surely soon, When He will call us home,
And we’ll be taken from this earth, No longer here to roam.
And, oh, what joy will fill our hearts, As Heaven’s gate we see,
For then we’ll be at home with Christ For all eternity.
© 2006 Paul Stultz
Quote – “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” – CS Lewis
The other day as I returned Home from a business trip,
My heart was filled with great relief, A smile did cross my lip.
“It’s good indeed to be back home,” I thought with joyful bent.
“There’s no place quite like home sweet home,” As through the door I went.
And then my mind did take a turn And wander just a bit.
I thought of how we’ll one day feel, When this old world we quit.
For this is but a journey long For those who trust in God,
And we are only travelers here Upon this earthly sod.
The day will come, ‘tis surely soon, When He will call us home,
And we’ll be taken from this earth, No longer here to roam.
And, oh, what joy will fill our hearts, As Heaven’s gate we see,
For then we’ll be at home with Christ For all eternity.
© 2006 Paul Stultz
Quote – “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” – CS Lewis
