A Homecoming Unlike Any Other

What’s your favorite part of Thanksgiving? The turkey, dressing and “all the fixin’s”? Holiday parades on TV? Football games? How about the gatherings of family around the festive dinner table – happenings that rarely occur at any other time of the year?

 

While not always the most congenial of events, especially if family members sit on separate political and ideological fence posts, Thanksgiving celebrations often serve as homecomings. Times when parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents, in-laws and outlaws can convene at someone’s home and catch up on what’s been transpiring in their lives since last Thanksgiving, or the last time they all got together.

 

High schools and colleges across the country have pretty much wrapped up their own homecoming events for the year, complete with king and queen (or whatever). Typically, each school designates one football game per season for homecoming, although at the first college I attended, homecoming was linked to a basketball game since the institution lacked a football team.

 

Akin to school homecomings are class reunions for former classmates after years of being out of school. These are designed for several purposes: rekindle old relationships, brag about their respective families, show off accomplishments and acquisitions since leaving dear old alma mater and, with the passage of time, see who’s showing their years more than others. They stir old memories, but since many have relocated to other areas since graduation, may not seem like coming home.

 

But have you ever stopped to think about what the ultimate homecoming will be like? The day when we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and, if we’re His followers, not only hear His “well done, good and faithful servant,” but also start getting reacquainted with old friends and loved ones who arrived at the “pearly gates” before we did?

 

This comes to mind because recently several longtime friends and family members have passed away, including a sister-in-law and a friend I had from my early newspaper days. Both believers in Jesus, they’ve gone to their eternal home.

 

The Lord addressed where we truly belong shortly before His crucifixion. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus uttered what some refer to as His “high priestly prayer,” offering prayer for Himself looking ahead to the events of the next days and also for His followers. 

 

He stated, “…they are not of the world any more than I am of the world…. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it…. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world” (John 17:14-24).

 

Since we live in this world but not of it, we really can’t call this home. As the old gospel hymn puts it, “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.” Ultimately, we’re not made for this world but one we’ve yet to experience.

 

Perhaps this is why we find a statement in Psalm 116:15 that initially sounds strange: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Picture a child returning from college, or after taking a job in a distant city, and the delight a parent feels upon their arrival at home. Multiply that perhaps a million times and we can understand why one of God’s children leaves this life through death, He regards that as precious – because they’ve finally come home.

 

The Bible often speaks of Heaven, but no one knows precisely what it will be like. Even though that hasn’t stopped many from writing speculative books about it. However, we can trust we’ll be able to join good friends and loved. The Scriptures hint at this after compiling an impressive list of faithful men and women in ages past in Hebrews 11: “All these people were still living by faith when they died…. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth …they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:13-16)

 

The writer begins the next chapter by declaring, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw of everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1). Does this mean heroes of faith who’ve passed on sometimes get a glimpse of how we’re doing here on earth?

 

Maybe, maybe not. But can you imagine being welcomed into Heaven by such faithful individuals as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Samson, David, prophets like Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah, not to mention the apostles? Then there will be the godly folks we loved and rubbed shoulders with over the years. 

 

What we know for certain is Jesus’ promise that, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to 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 14:1-2).

Thinking about our heavenly homecoming, our imaginations can run wild with anticipation. We do have this assurance from the apostle John: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). As another old hymn says, “When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be.” 

Do We Know Who We Know?

Occasionally we hear or read about someone accused of committing a heinous crime, and a friend or family member defends the person, stating, “Well, I know so-and-so, and he/she would never do that.” Do they know for certain? We just experienced a very contentious Presidential election, ending with many of us voting for the candidate we “knew” would be best for the job.

Have you ever attended a wedding ceremony, watching the couple exchange their vows, and thinking, “Man, they really don’t have any idea what they’re doing!” Because the fact is, no matter how long a courtship is, two people never really know each other until they begin to permanently live under the same roof. Even then it typically takes years to genuinely know the other individual.

Watching the news, or entertainment shows, we think we know a certain celebrity or dignitary – but we don’t. We only know what’s presented to us, what we perceive from outward appearances, and what others say about them. Do we really “know” the Kardashians? Or Princess Kate? Or Morgan Freeman?

During the election campaign, what we knew about Trump, Clinton or Sanders was largely what the news media carefully and selectively offered to us. But we couldn’t honestly say we knew them.  For instance, what’s their favorite color? Favorite food? Musical preferences? Do they snore? Boxers or briefs?

There is only one sure way of knowing a person, any person. That’s to spend time with them. The more time spent with them, usually the better we get to know them. We can observe someone at work and think they’re wonderful. We might hear a persuasive speaker and think, “Wouldn’t it be fun to be that person’s close friend?” But as many of us have painfully discovered, outward appearances can woefully deceive. Only when we spend time with people do we discover what they’re actually like.

How about knowing God? What does it mean when we declare, “I know the Lord”? Maybe one time we walked an aisle, raised a hand, or marked a card to indicate a commitment to Jesus Christ. But do any of those acts signify having an intimate, everyday relationship with Him?

I can think of several people who would tell you they “know” God, but evidence in their lives would attest to the contrary. Saying we know doesn’t necessarily mean we know. As the Bible tells us, “You believe there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder” (James 2:19). And the Scriptures assure that we won’t be troubled by demons in heaven. Knowing God in the redemptive, life-transforming way means much more than intellectual knowledge or belief.

To me, to know God is similar in some ways to knowing a spouse or cherished friend. We want to spend time with them; we do spend time with them, and over time, we come to know them better and better.

Relationships – human and spiritual – don’t grow through hit-and-miss, casual interactions. They require not only time, but also the investment of ourselves. We want to be with those we love, to the extent that we miss them dearly when we’re not with them.

Psalm 63:1 describes what this can look like for someone who truly knows the Lord and desires to be with Him. “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” This psalm, attributed to King David, communicates a deep, intense yearning to be in the presence of the God he knew and trusted. No wonder he’s described as a man with “a heart after God” (Acts 13:22), despite his grievous lapses into sin.

In many respects, like David, we’re living in a “dry and weary land,” at least in a spiritual sense. All the more reason we should thirst and long for time with the Lord, whether through prayer and time reading and studying the Scriptures, associating with like-minded believers, or seeking to be active participants in His work here on earth.

One day we’ll see Him face to face, as 1 John 3:2 promises: “…when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Do we know Him, the way we “know” Miley Cyrus, Lebron James or Bill Gates – or do we know Him?