I followed behind my sister-in-law’s footsteps down the newly renovated hallway and into freshly-painted rooms. They had just bought this house and put significant funds into making it their own. She’s also a ministry worker, but one living in her home country of America. This dream of owning my own home I thought I had laid down years ago when we moved overseas came roaring back into the forefront of my mind. I outwardly smiled as I inwardly longed for the same. 

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I hear the familiar ‘dink, dink, dink’ of a knocking rock on our outside gate, and I know who it is waiting on the other side. This precious single mother with three daughters, always visiting and asking for something to eat; their living quarters barely able to claim the name ‘home.’ Last time they stopped by, I insisted they use our running water to take a shower. The mother had given in, staring blankly back at me, little hope left in her eyes. 

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Oh, if this were all there were, where our stories ended- what a hopeless state we would be in. It doesn’t take much suffering and laid-aside dreams in this life to make a soul long for something more. Yet in God’s glorious grace, we know our hope lies elsewhere. In a home that starts at the end of this temporary one and never ends, with full bellies and fully belonging hearts to a Savior who never left us here and is also awaiting us there. Paul challenges the persecuted Philippian church of the same truth, reminding them to not set their minds on earthly things, for “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20). 

In these moments of desiring “home,” while being surrounded by so many who yearn for much simpler necessities, I’m reminded of the gift of knowing there is so much more, for all of us. We who have heard and now follow the Truth can cling to a hope that breaks through the darkness of broken homes, hungry tummies, and displaced addresses. And now we can truly claim, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade” (1 Peter 1:3-4; continue reading through v.10). The hope of heaven is a glorious anchor to which we can tether our lives.