Moving again?

Sojourner
definition-a person who resides temporarily in a place


You may have heard that we are moving. Yes, after 4 years in this house we did not envision we'd be moving but we are. I know of some people who've lived in the same house their whole life, or for their whole married life. I really don't know what that would be like. Before I married at 19 I lived in 8 different places with my parents (not including college), and when we move it will be the 10th place we've lived in our 44 years of marriage. But moving is "in my blood"! Really, it is! According to "Eat Right 4 Your Type", a book about blood types and what best suits your type, Type B blood people are characterized as "Nomads". Their ancestors from antiquity were nomadic. So perhaps that's why I tend to move a lot! Not just houses but jobs too. My dear husband worked for the same company for 37 years. I changed jobs every 4-6 years.


In the early years we were renting and expecting to move around a bit, but once you buy a house you feel like you're putting down roots. The house we are moving to will be our 6th house to own. We visited someone a few years ago from our original neighbourhood, where we owned our first house. He still lives three doors down from where we lived 39 years ago. I can't imagine what that would be like.


In the bible, believers were often referred to as strangers or aliens in this world, and because this world was not their home, they were encouraged to live differently than the world does, with its focus on pleasures and storing up earthly treasure. Jesus said, in Matthew 6: ¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." As Christians we are told to consider our lives as a mist that appears for awhile and then vanishes. To listen to the nightly news disrupts our sense of security as we see those displaced by wars and terrorism, and disasters like floods, hurricanes and earthquakes. It drives home the reality that life is fragile, and everything can change in a moment.


Most every time we move there is some positive anticipation about the new place to live, but there also some sorrow about what is being left behind. The same is true for me when changing jobs or churches. We make memories everywhere we go and ours are often identified with a certain place we lived at the time. We miss people, places we liked to walk, shops we liked to shop in. People who have always lived in the same place don't know what this is like.  But I do remind myself that home is more than the house we live in, it is the people there with us, the children, grandchildren, family and friends who visit.


Jesus was the only person on earth who knew the timetable for his life. He knew he would soon be leaving his disciples and dying a cruel death on a cross, returning to Heaven to sit at the right hand of God. Mission accomplished. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. None of us knows the number days we'll walk this earth, but Jesus did. Knowing that his disciples would need comforting with all that would take place, he told them in John chapter 14 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms (mansions); if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am."


I don't know how many more times I will move before I leave this earth. I don't know how many years I'll be here. But I do know where my final home will be, and I will never move from there. I'll be in my heavenly home with Jesus. Not because of anything good that I've done but all because of what Jesus did.