On the way back from vacations, as we get closer to “home”, we recognize more and more details from our surroundings. We don’t have to actually “read” the street signs or look at the maps, but we know from the familiarity of what is around us that we’re getting closer to home.
A couple of weeks ago, I took a short trip to the place where I grew up in New England. I recognized our old neighborhood and the friends who lived there years ago. Then I went to a seaside village, where my grandfather and his family lived in a summer cottage over 55 years ago. As we drove to that old house on sand dusted roads for the first time in years, I remembered just a few things clearly. When the current owner explained that his grandfather bought it from my grandfather, we began to reminisce about times long ago. I didn’t know him, and he didn’t know me, but we knew each other through that one event that took place decades ago between two men who have since passed from this earthly realm. Their roads crossed at the seaside village because they were neighbors from THEIR old neighborhood.
If we look through a spiritual lens, we know that all believers in God through Christ have new heavenly homes being built for them. Christ’s single sacrifice for our sins allows us to meet other believers we may never know on earth, but will on heavenly roads in the future. The way and the timing to our heavenly home is unknown, but it WILL happen.
I think now of those two men who changed their status on the house by the sea: One from owner to seller, and the other from buyer to owner. Do you think they had ever thought about one of their grandsons meeting the other’s grandson to talk about family? They may have considered the kids meeting, but most likely not the grandchildren.
As we get closer to the end of our earthly lives and get closer to “home,” we can see how our roads through this life impacted others spiritually. The decisions, transactions, communications, conversations and interactions with everyone around us forms intersections with someone else’s life. Down the road, will our children or grandchildren be able to share fond memories with each other? Will they talk of our devotion in marriage, or in our families? Will they talk of our ethics in business, or how we shared from our resources with others? Will they look forward to seeing us in heaven because we shared the same “earthly neighborhood”?
“Lord, we don’t know what the future holds for everyone we are in contact with on earth, but strengthen us in our daily walks so they see YOU in us. In Christ’s Name. Amen.”