Have you ever stopped in the midst of a busy airport terminal and taken a moment to watch the people?  They scurry from one place to another, usually with luggage in tow.  They have all come from somewhere and are headed somewhere else.  Each one has a separate story.  But all you can tell from appearances is a grim demeanor and a focused look.  All are, at the moment, away from home, for no one lives at an airport terminal.  While within its walls, we are all foreigners.  We all went through the same sometimes traumatic experience with security.  We all share some of the same obstacles and similar experiences as we proceed on our journey.

How like life in a nutshell this is!  The planet earth is like a large airport terminal, because none of us really lives here.  We are all passing through on our way to our real destination.  We all entered through the trauma called birth.  We all love, hurt, try, fail and keep going.

The one difference I notice is that everyone in an airport terminal knows they are only visitors and are not at home.  Many people on planet earth refuse to acknowledge this truth.  The live like they will be here forever, like this is all there is.  How much better it is to realize we are all pilgrims.  This world is not our home; we are just passing through.  But that’s OK  – who wants to stay in an airport terminal forever, anyway? (January 17, 2016, adapted from April, 2004, Doylestown, PA

Grass withers, flowers fade away … but the Word of our God endures forever. Isaiah 40:7-8

Is it time for a short reality check in your thinking? Is this life and world becoming too much ‘home’ to you? Are you disappointed because life fails to meet your expectations? It always will. In the army I leaned a song that helped get me through those Viet Nam era days: “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door and I can’t feel at home in this world any more.”