Longing For Home

For if what was going to fade was glorious,

how much more will what endures be glorious. // 2 Corinthians 3:11

I pressed my cheek against the cool wall of my house, tears rolling down my face. I’ve lived here longer than I’ve lived anywhere else in my life. And now I’m being called elsewhere? God, I prayed, If You take this away from me, what will I have left? And there in my mind, He spoke the answer as clearly as the sunrise parts the mist on the lake in the summer: You’ll have Me.

For over a decade I’ve poured my life and energy into building friendships and community in my parish in Chicago. It has been beautiful and rewarding to see ministry and relationships flourish. A few years back, we experienced a kind of heyday: many of us moms with young kids all lived within walking distance of the beautiful church we called home. The vestibule in back was jammed with strollers on Sunday morning, the choir loft rang with beauty, and we met up for spontaneous park dates, coffee, book clubs, and moms’ nights. I thought, as we human beings tend to do, that nothing would change.

But cities are expensive and stressful places to raise kids, and job opportunities and family ties pulled one family after another away from our neighborhood, until it felt almost like we were starting from scratch. And then God started pulling at my heart, asking me to reconsider my own priorities, asking me to quiet my pride and give Him control. To surrender, again.

When we experience truth, beauty, and goodness in this life, we glimpse the eternal life that is promised to us. That’s why it hurts so much when what was good, true, or beautiful fades away. We were not made for death and decay; God’s deep desire is for us to be one with Him in Heaven forever. And so we long for Home, where we will bask endlessly in His perfect radiance. This life is passing away, and Heaven calls to our aching hearts.

Today, sister, I challenge you to approach the throne of grace in gratitude for the gifts in your life that call your heart to Heaven, even as you offer them back to Him. The most glorious things in our earthly lives will fade, but they pale in comparison to what awaits us beyond.