Homeward Bound

     One of our daughters just got back from a wonderful spring break trip with several girlfriends in Kiawah Island, SC.  Wow, some of the pictures she sent back made me dream of long, hot afternoons and salty ocean breezes. There's something about the peacefulness of those waters--

       When I see such beauty, such serenity, it also awakens in me a longing for our true and wondrous home...heaven.  If this imperfect planet could be so breathtaking in it's splendor, imagine what our perfect, glorious Home must be like.  "...No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined that God has prepared for those who love Him." (I Cor.2:9)

      O thank You, Father, for all we have to anticipate and for the hope and joy that gives us now in our present circumstances, whether good or bad.
     I guess I'm especially thinking about this right now as a good friend of mine just lost her daddy.  Death is just plain heartbreaking, no way around it.  But I loved these words from Randy Alcorn:
     "Grasping what the Bible teaches about Heaven shifts our center of gravity and radically alters our perspective on life.  This is why we should always seek to keep Heaven in our line of sight.
     In 1952, Florence Chadwick stepped off Catalina Island, Ca, into the waters of the Pacific Ocean, determined to swim to the mainland.  An experienced swimmer, she had already made history as the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways.
     The weather that day was foggy and chilly; Florence could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam steadily for 15 hours. When she begged to be taken out of the water, her mother, in a boat alongside her, told her that she was close and that she could make it.  But Florence, physically and emotionally exhausted, stopped swimming and was pulled into the boat.  It wasn't until she was on board that she discovered the shore was less than half a mile away.  At a news conference the next day, she said, 'All I could see was the fog...I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.'
      When you face discouragement, difficulty or fatigue, or when you feel surrounded by the fog of uncertain circumstances, are you thinking, If only I could see the shore, I could make it?
     Set your sights on Jesus Christ, the Rock of salvation.  He is the One who has promised to prepare a place for those who put their hope in Him, a place where they can live with Him forever.  If we can learn to fix our eyes on Jesus, to see through the fog and picture our eternal home in our mind's eye, it will comfort and energize us, giving us a clear look at the finish line."
     Now that's a good word.  It may be foggy now, but Heaven's glorious shore is just ahead...and by the grace and mercy of God, we can make it.  Not somehow, but triumphantly.
     And you know what?  It's going to far exceed our wildest imaginings...He's promised.  So in the meantime, I want to be found faithful right where He has placed me.  My gaze set firmly on Jesus, the Finisher and Perfecter of my faith, my hope in heaven, and my joy in following Him all the way Home.  There's nothing like being Homeward bound.
     To God be the glory.