“Ready to go Home”


BIBLE READING:  2 Peter 3

     One Friday afternoon a minister struggled to prepare for the weekend. The week’s hectic pace, filled with activities, left him scrambling on Friday to finish his sermon. While he hunched over his desk, unable to develop anything that resembled a sermon, the office phone rang. From the phone’s earpiece came the shaky voice of an elderly lady who lived in the nursing home, Mrs. Robinson. She wanted the preacher to visit her. The preacher looked at his unfinished sermon, then at the clock, then back at the computer screen. He grimaced. “I’ll be right over.” Mrs. Robinson served in the church for years. She had endured a difficult life. She had outlived all her family. Though she resided in a nursing home full of people, she lived alone. “I’ll just make it a short visit, then I can get back to more important things.”, he thought.   As he entered her room, he sat in the recliner next to her bed, and asked Mrs. Robinson about her week. She raised her head briefly from her pillow and smiled. “Awful kind of you to visit an old lady.” The preacher’s eyes dropped as did his shoulders, “My week has been fine, thanks for asking,” she continued. “The beautician came by and gave me a new hair style. Do you like it?” “Very pretty,” the preacher responded, even though he could tell no difference from before. He continued to look to his watch as they briefly chatted about the happenings at the nursing home, then Mrs. Robinson grew quiet. Her eyes focused somewhere beyond the room. “I’m tired, and I want to go home,” she said. Her head turned toward the preacher,” Is it okay to want to go home?” To Mrs. Robinson, home meant heaven- a home for which her tired body and spirit ached. Is it okay to yearn for our heavenly home?  The preacher knew exactly what Sunday’s lesson would be about.  Of course, it is okay to want to go home to be with the Lord if we are prepared.  Christians have a promise for God that he will bring us to His home (John 14.1-6).  Peter reminds us that God is not slack about His promises to us and that when He is ready, He will deliver on them (2 Peter 3.9). I wish we all wanted to go home as much as Mrs. Robinson.  Are you ready to go?


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