I Will Come To You: My Home is NOT in Alabama

July 27, 2011

My Home is NOT in Alabama

So this post isn't exactly about our adoption process. But it is about adoption.

We went to Grand Teton National Park this past week. As we were flying out of Jackson Hole and over the mountains, there was a LOT of turbulance. I've flown a good bit and am generally not a nervous flyer, but I got scared. I prayed that God would get us home safely (which is basically a prayer that we wouldn't die).

I was almost immediately ashamed of my prayer. It was basically an admission that I wasn't ready to leave my earthly home in exchange for my heavenly home. Why did I want to stay here when there's something better waiting for me?

Wesley and I are reading a book called Adopted for Life which is more about how God adopted us than it is about adopting children here, although the two go hand in hand. There is a story in it where the author tells about the day he picked up his two new sons from their aweful orphanage in Eastern Europe where they had very little care and food. As they drove away from the orphanage towards the airport, his two children looked back in the taxi, longing and crying for the aweful orphanage. They were too little to know any better. They didn't realize how much better of a home they were going to.

After I prayed the prayer not to die, I thought of how much like those little boys I was. This world is NOTHING in comparison with my eternal home with my Father in heaven! Shouldn't I be longing for it, instead of longing to make it safely to my temporary home in Alabama?

Disclaimer- I'm not saying it's bad not to want to die. There are some noble reasons to want to live (like to have more time to share Christ's good news with others). I'm just saying that God reminded me that this world is not my home and that I should remember that. In remembering where my citizenship lies and longing for my true home, I will better prioritize my time here in my temporary home.

1 comment:

Melanie July 27, 2011 at 8:06 PM
Thanks for sharing this good word, Ashley. What a great reminder.
-Melanie
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John 14:1-21

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 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. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”