This World is Not My Home

Well, this is a scary prospect. I suppose we all go through life losing possessions. I was a bit disappointed when my iPad stopped working a few months ago. But if you lose them all one-by-one, you can generally replace them.

My fear would be that the insurance company would use some “get out” clause to avoid paying up.

Maybe something more likely again is that my health would decline suddenly or gradually and I’d end up in a care home. So, I mightn’t have access to my possessions. I’d like to have a little laptop, and it would be great to have my Meta Oculus.

Hopefully, it’ll be a while yet before any of that happens. I have a whole load of books and magazines that I haven’t read. I’d hate to lose them, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I’ve already thrown out a lot of old stuff. I often miss it, but in all likelihood, if I kept it, it would just stay untouched in the attic.

So, we get to the spiritual bit. Firstly, I’m greatly privileged to live in Ireland, where we have peace. Let’s suppose that the majority of Irish people gave their full support to the IRA and we had a terrorist state. Let’s suppose that they’d go and keep murdering British people and work from civilian areas. That sort of thing happened in Northern Ireland in my lifetime, and in the Republic in my grandparent’s lifetime. And think of Germany and Japan in my parent’s lifetime. My father was stationed in West Germany with the US army in the 1950s. Like so many Irish, he emigrated to the US in the 1950s for a while. But what if you had bitter German and Japanese terrorists who kept fighting? Thankfully they surrendered and put their efforts into building two great nations.

Thankfully, the historic conflict between Irish and Britain has stopped now. But what if I lived in a region where that went on and on? I’m sure that there are plenty of people in these regions who long for peace and who are more than happy to compromise but are likely to get murdered if they speak out.

I’m grateful that I’ve never been homeless. So, I’ve had a good life in this world. But even so, the New Testament always encourages us to focus on our heavenly home.

Hebrews 13:14
“For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.”

Philippians 3:20
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 John 2:17
“The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

John 14:2
“In my Father’s house are many rooms… I go to prepare a place for you.”

2 Corinthians 5:1
“If the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven.”

Hebrews 11:16
“They were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.”

Romans 8:18 “
The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18
“We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Revelation 21:4
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes… for the old order of things has passed away.”

Some might be surprised to see This Ole House among the songs. Shaken Stephens revived the old song in 1981. It was actually a Christian song, with the house representing the body. As we age, we get a bit tired of our bodies with all their ailments, and we look forward to getting something much better in the future. At the resurrection, we’ll get our body back, but it won’t be the same. It’ll be transformed.

And Marching to Zion, what does that mean? Well, in Scripture, it has three meanings:

• God’s dwelling place: A holy city where God resides among His people.
• The people of God: Sometimes used to refer to the faithful community or the church.
• Heaven or the New Jerusalem: In prophetic and poetic passages, Zion represents the ultimate home of believers, a place of peace, joy, and eternal communion with God.

So, in the hymn, it refers to the future home of believers.