Where is Home?
Jim Gillaspie
He was surrounded by all the best doctors. His home contained
all the finest possessions money could buy. But as he drew his
final breaths, he mourned "I'm leaving home...I'm leaving home!"
On the other side of town was an old woman in an old shack. No
doctor stood at her side. Her home contained only the barest of
essentials. But as she took her final breaths, she whispered "I'm
going home...I'm going home!"
Where is your home? James reminds
us that life is brief: "...For what is your life? It is even a
vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away"
(James 4:14). The Hebrew writer reminds us that we are merely
"strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Heb 11:13). Peter pleaded:
"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain
from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (1 Pet 3:11). Yet
which home are we more concerned about? If you want to try an
interesting experiment, keep track for just one week of how much
time you think about spiritual things versus how much time you
think about temporal things. Put the totals side by side. Then
think about how long eternity is compared to the few short years we
spend on this earth. How does it compare? When your life comes to
an end, will you be leaving home or going home?