14 For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come. (NLT)
C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but he will not encourage us to mistake them for home.” We read elsewhere in his writings that Lewis certainly saw continuity between this world and the world to come. Heaven is not some spiritualised far corner of the universe but more a deeper and richer version of our world: the world God originally made. Life on earth is not to be despised or dismissed.
However, it is still true that the many earthly pleasures we experience are not permanent. They are pointers to what is to come. All true pleasures and satisfactions in this life are foretastes of the deeper things of heaven. So while we enjoy what is enjoyable on earth, we dare not assume they are the final reality.
It is a mark of idolatry that we confuse the secondary and the primary. We place ultimate value on what is of real but secondary value. In the words of Lewis, we enjoy our ‘pleasant inns’. We thank God for them and make the most of them. But we recognise that something more is yet to come. Something deeper, something unimaginably better.
Those who travel will appreciate the delights of travel but also may believe there is no place like home.
Blessings
David Reay
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