Homesick

Does anyone remember feeling homesick as a kid? Sometimes I would go to sleepovers and it would be so bad that my mom would have to come pick me up in the middle of the night. Yes, I was that kid. As an adult, though, my homesickness is different. It is a feeling I can’t quite put my finger on. Who am I missing? Which place am I missing? And most curiously- why?

The other day I was reading in Hebrews and this verse popped out at me:

“Therefore let us go to Him [Jesus] outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we seek the city that is to come.” -Hebrews 13:12-13

Ah. There it is. As believers, our “homesickness” is a longing for another kingdom- Heaven- and another person- Jesus.

More often than not, I enjoy this world. People, food, singing, traveling… These things often bring me great excitement and happiness. But just underneath that happiness is a layer of longing that never seems to go away. It isn’t fulfilled by any job or experience or person or meal. As CS Lewis writes so insightfully, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

As followers of Christ, we are living in the in-between. We can experience great joy here on earth, but eternity has been set in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and we are reminded that this world can never feel like our true home.

To me, that is exciting! It means that one day all of our deepest longings and sorrows will be replaced by unshakable joy and fulfillment when we finally see Jesus face to face. I am filled with great expectation and hope as I read this truth:

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” -1 Corinthians 13:12