When We Get Where We're Going

I escorted them to the gate, helped them gather their luggage, and then watched them go through the security checkpoint and continue on into the airport. I stood there until I could see them no more, and I had a million thoughts and emotions running through my blood. 

I remembered what it felt like to be in their shoes, just finishing my survey trip to Burkina, falling in love with a people and sensing a deeper calling, but then having to turn around, leave, and go back to the old life I came from. 

I felt like something about their leaving didn't fit right - like it just wasn't time for them to go yet. 

I thought about the missionary community and how people are always coming and always going. It's a fluid, constant circulation of new and old people. 

I also considered the couple as I watched them leave. They are seeking God's direction on the next step in their lives and specifically to what location God is calling them. 

I even thought about my parents, getting ready to make their first big move since I was born. 

And it just hit me how crazy it is that people move around all the time. Coming and going, leaving and staying, trying to get to the next place or just determine where the next place is.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I recognized that all these goodbyes and changes were drawing up a deep longing within me, like a bucket getting dropped way down to the bottom of the well and sinking down into the water and slowing filling up. 

A longing for heaven. 

Heaven! When we finally get to where we are all going. Where there will be no more goodbyes. No more comings or goings or leavings. Where we won't have to worry about being where we are supposed to be because everybody will already be there. We will have arrived, and we will settle down and make our homes where we all belong. We will be together and we will worship and we will wonder in awe at the presence of the Holy One. We will live life and adventure and work and play and reside all for his glory. 

Until then, we journey on, trusting that God has "marked out for us our times and the exact places where we will live." We "set our hearts on pilgrimage" and pass from "strength to strength" until "each appears before God in Zion." (Psalm 84) 

As for me, I just can't wait to get to where we're going. This pilgrim journey of life is great and all, but it makes me homesick for heaven. Maybe that's the point. When the road is long and full of twists and turns, the destination is a million times sweeter and well worth the voyage.