A Heavenly City

This morning I woke up and had the chance to spend some time with God alone. That doesn't happen for me very often and I've been really missing Him. I started out by praying and asking Him to just help this moment be special so that maybe I'll be encouraged to do better in finding this time with Him. Also I had no idea where to begin reading. I have bookmarks in my Bible where I am reading with the kids, but nothing where I am reading alone because it's just been that long. So I asked Him where to start today. I expected a book, maybe a chapter. I got Hebrews 11:8. I started there.

I've been bothered by a couple of things lately. One is that my house is still not finished. There's a long way to go really. And yet over and over I feel the Lord telling us to finish our fields first. That's even Biblical. Can't recall chapter and verse right now, but I know it's there and try to remind myself all the time that it really doesn't matter how the house looks. This passage in Hebrews showed me that Abraham lived in the promised land in tents! Wow. I never really thought about that before. I'm grumbling about this house being solid, but unfinished. It is WAY better than a tent. We put tents up for Sukkot and I didn't even want to sleep in one. I much preferred my house and bed. So I felt good that the Lord had spoken to me and thought I was done. But I felt this prompting to keep reading so I did.

The other thing that has bothered me is that when we moved here we left a lot of friends and family behind. I miss them. I miss them a lot. I miss my siblings and the fact that my kids don't get to know their cousins very well. I miss all my friends. I miss that my kids had so many friends. I miss my homeschool group and all the fun activities we were able to do together. I miss the quantity of wonderful people I knew and hung out with on a regular basis. There are good people here, but not as many and it's had me longing for the city, for where we came from. Yet I KNOW this is where God wants us now. I don't doubt that. I just have had a hard time with this longing for fellowship with LOTS of people that love the Lord.

So I keep reading in Hebrews 11. I get to verses 15 and 16 and read this:

"And truly if they had called to mind that city from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly city. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."

Wow, that word city really popped out at me. And it was in there 3 times! It so clearly showed me that what I was longing for was not the city from which I'd come but the city to which I was going. The one Abraham had waited for while living in tents back in verse 10, "for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

I just sat there praising God for a few minutes for showing me that what I really want isn't in my past but in my future. It isn't something I gave up, but something yet to come. That was so encouraging and uplifting! I just have to keep on keepin' on and I'll get there someday.

So as if that wasn't enough, I get done praising Him for a moment and look back at what I'd just read. Italicized words jumped off the page. In the passage I quoted above from verses 15 and 16, the first two times the word "city" was there, it actually says "country." Now I'm not a poor reader. I read things word for word and can't even skip over "the" like a lot of people might do. I read slowly because of that, but I can't seem to quit it. And the word "city" all 3 times was a big deal the first time I read it and I looked at it over and over. Then I closed my eyes and prayed, opened them, and it said, "country." I'm not crazy. It's God's living Word and he changed it for the moment to make His point.

So then I had to sit and praise Him again because He loves me enough to change what I see on the page to tell me what He wants me to know. He is just so very awesome.

I had to get this written down so I'll remember it. Chances are, I'll long for that fellowship again and I might forget what He told me. Writing it helps me remember, but it's also here for me to read it again.