This Is Not My Home

This morning, at church, I talked with a friend:

Me: So, how are you doing?
Friend: I am just so weary. Life is good, but it is so tiring.
Me: (with a sigh and a knowing look) Isn't heaven going to be great?!
Friend: (with a reciprocating sigh and a sweet smile spreading across her face) Yes, it is!
 
I identified with her sentiments of weariness and the feeling of being heart-tired. And it, once again, made me wonder:
~Why is life sometimes so hard?
~Why does it make us so tired?
~Why is it so dirty and require so much "clean-up"?
~Why is it such a struggle?

Could part of the problem be our expectations? After all, we are made in the image of God and therefore somewhere in the depths of our hearts is the impression of the perfection of heaven.

So we strive to make a bit of that "memory" of heaven on earth. We look for the perfection but nothing has the capacity to measure up. But that doesn't stop us from trying!

• We try to make our homes look like those pictures in magazines or Pinterest.
• We struggle to maintain our bodies to the standard of the air brushed photos in advertisements.
• We strive to maintain our love stories to the level of Hollywood's glossed over non-reality.
• We work to obtain wealth and advantage and position that we envy in others.
• We look to cars, homes, jobs, fashion, decor, or any other of the number of false markers to our value to create a little "HEAVEN ON EARTH"!

But here is the problem with Every. Single. Effort.
This. Is. Not. Our. Home.

This is not Heaven and it never will be.
This is a fallen world where the best we can do is look on and see the redemptive power of God.
But as hard as we try, we will never make this heaven.

So let us look forward to that Beautiful City which will someday be our residence, but let's free up our present reality from the disappointment that comes from wanting to see that perfection now.

Yes, right now can be tiring. But even in it's grimiest reality it can still be beautiful.
Instead of being disappointed, let's be THANKFUL.

"Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High; and call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me."                 ~Psalm 50: 14,15