Longing for Heaven

Anyone who has traveled has felt it, and those of you who travel a lot know exactly what I mean.  It’s that unsettling feeling you get sometime between getting dropped off at one airport and picked up from another.  You’re torn between two places, two realities.  You miss one so much – and then when you get there, you miss the other.  You find yourself at home in both – and yet out of place at the same time.

Such is life for many BFA students.  They face a myriad of emotions every time they board a plane – to visit their parents on the mission field for a few weeks, to travel with parents on Home Assignment, to visit friends where they used to live, and to return to BFA.  Even for the students who love their parents’ country of service and truly enjoy living in the BFA dorm, this transition from one place to another is difficult.  Where do you put down roots?  Do you allow yourself to connect deeply with others when you know these relationships are plagued with goodbyes?  And, where is “home”?

Although I didn’t grow up as a missionary kid, I’m getting a glimpse into the life of a BFA student as I experience some of these feelings this summer.  While I am serving in Germany, I think of friends and family in the States often.  I feel connected to my hometown and home church.  I sometimes crave an Applebee’s appetizer or a Panera salad.  I strive to maintain connection with close friends. I wish I could be closer and could invest more in those I love.  I wish it didn’t take a couple hundred dollars and eight hours to see them in person.

Yet it’s only natural that BFA is on my mind as I spend time in the States on Home Assignment.  I miss my fourth graders, from whom I learned about teaching and life this year.  I miss my small group girls, whose enthusiasm and openness challenged me.  I miss my friends and mentors, who have encouraged my heart in a land of unknowns.

I am coming to the realization that this longing for familiar people and places is the reflection of an innate longing for heaven, my true home.  Try as I might to find satisfaction in this world, there is no fulfillment apart from Christ. 

My prayer is this:  Wherever we travel this summer, may we always remember that Heaven is our home.   In spite of the goodbyes we say and the longings we feel, I pray that we find our true hope and joy in Christ.

"These all [the characters in Hebrews 11] died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.  For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.  If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had the opportunity to return.  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city."  Hebrews 11:13-16