Not Our Home

May 11, 2023

From Jackie Payne

Guess what? The school year is almost over!! For those of you who are parents of school-aged kids, this comes with a great relief, but also a “what am I supposed to do with them for two months during the day” mild panic. For me, I always start off summer excited and energetic about having my kids home with a more chill schedule. There’s the hope of the pool and sleeping in and traveling…this hope lasts until about June 10 or so. At this point the exhaustion of trying to juggle kids with no plans and work with all the plans starts to get to me. And so begins the countdown to the start of school, like a 5 year old waiting for Christmas morning, and I must remind myself over and over again to take time to enjoy my kiddos and their time off.

And this is life, the ups and downs of excitement and then overwhelm, joy and then sorrow, peace and then distress. At this season in some of your lives, your schedules and emotions are largely run by the minors that reside in your home. For others you are dealing with the loss of someone or an expectation or a dream. For others you are content with how life is right now, basking in the things that are amazingly enough going well. We all have these seasons, and it’s easy to forget when things are going well that this place is not our home. And then when things are not going well, we thankfully have the hope and the promise that this place is not our home.

So whatever season you are in right now, good or bad or somewhere in between, remember to keep Jesus in the forefront of your mind. He promised that He will come back and take us home, and He is incapable of ever lying. I know that is a hard concept for you and I to really grasp onto since we can do it so easily, but He literally can’t. So whatever He says is true.

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 14:2-3

Take heart today, Church Family! Whether you are anticipating summer with your kids or longing for something or dealing with some serious mental, physical or spiritual issues or wherever you are in the seasons of life, He is coming back to take us home.