Just A’passin’ Thru

by: Carole L. Haines

I so love some of the old hymns. As I was preparing to write this morning, these words from an old hymn came to my mind.

This world is not my home, I’m just a’passin’ through,
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door
and I just can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

The Apostle Paul expresses this notion just a bit differently:

For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, ³ inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. ⁴ For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
(2 Corinthians 5:1-5)

I remember sitting out at the picnic table, under the old Walnut tree that was planted there, in memory of one of our fallen President’s.  We discovered the History of the tree in our yard when two wonderful elderly women dropped by, while in our area, and asked if they could come in and see the old house they grew up in.  We learned so much of the rich history of our old place when we listened to their stories.
But this morning, as I sat under our tree, I was grieving and struggling and crying out to God about my diagnosis of anxiety disorder.  I was asking Him to take it away, and to just let me be like everybody else.  I happened to be in the above passage of Scripture and sensed the Lord whisper to my heart.

“Can you just allow the groanings to remind you that this is not your real home.  You groan because you are already homesick, and when your work is done here, I will bring you home.  When You are with me, the mortal will finally be swallowed up by life, and there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain, and no more anxiety. Just rest in Me, and trust my purposes.”

Now that’s a summation of His message to me, it’s been too long to remember His actual words, but the message is clear.  We are all going to feel homesick for Heaven sometimes. It’s a natural part of being His Child now.  We are just a’passin’ through.  But while we do, when the groanings come, and the aches and pains of the world are weighing heavily upon us; let us remember that when we are Home, finally Home with Jesus, the mortal will all be swallowed up by His life.