Homeland Insecurity

What would you consider your homeland?

They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them. - Hebrews 11:13-16

In his letter to the Hebrews, Paul talks about homeland insecurity, that state of being in which one doesn't know where one truly belongs.

He tells us that not all who followed the will of God and adhered to His promises lived to see the dream fulfilled.  They failed to come to the place he promised them here on earth.  But that wasn't the true reward.  Their reward was in the hereafter.

We know that, and we say we understand that, but do we live in acceptance of that.  Or do we fight and struggle to make our home here. to capture for ourselves what we feel we need to own and protect and keep?

Competing in the Olympics this week is a team of refugees, people without a home.  They may have had a land that was theirs before, but now they are adrift, like Moses and his followers in the desert.

We may cheer them on and hope they win medals, feeling good about them and their dedication to their sports, their talents, and their dreams of a place to live in harmony in the world.  But until we see ourselves as transients on this planet, temporary residents, we will fail to accept them as one of us.

We won't though, because we live in fear, and fear causes us to defend and protect what we have, what we believe we own.  It would be great if we could all come together the way we do during the Olympics, but even there, we fail to include everyone.  Those without a homeland, except for these refugees, are not present.

So, what is the message for us?  What do we take away from this lesson?

I believe Paul wants us to see there is a place for us, regardless of what happens in this place, at this time, in this life.  God has a homeland waiting for all His children, and it is worth striving for.

This place will never be like that.  Here we live in insecurities, struggling against forces of nature and enemies too real and horrific to imagine.

Perhaps, though, we can get home and bring all we encounter with us, but we must change how we see them.  We have to know all as family.

And we all know how hard it is to get along with family sometimes.

So, the struggle continues, and we build our walls and our laws and our fences protect us for a while, but we don't stop caring.  We seek to love one another and invite in those who pose no threat, until all can come together in love.

It causes us to face the fact that it won't happen in our lifetime.  So we keep the faith and do all we can to protect those we love, and love those we don't.

Jesus never told us it would be easy.

More to come...