Tomorrow is promised but the Location is not

I have asked the LORD for one thing—this is what I desire! I want to live in the LORD’s house all the days of my life, so I can gaze at the splendor of the LORD and contemplate in his temple. Psalm 27:4 (NET)

There are moments of time that will be forever embedded into my memory. They include hearing Mr. Conover’s voice coming over the loudspeaker at school announcing that Pres Kennedy had been assassinated, being awakened out of deep sleep that our pastor and his family had been killed, sitting in my Nairobi office, hearing a massive explosion, finding out later that it was the United States Embassy bombing and standing in the kitchen of our Johannesburg home getting a call that my grandmother had died.

Jesus told a parable in Luke 12 about the landowner who enjoyed a bumper harvest from his land one year. The yield was so great he couldn’t find enough barns so he set about building larger and more elaborate storage facilities that could easily handle his storage problem. Then he sat back and said to himself, “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!” He forgot one important step in his plans, he didn’t control his life. “But God said to him, ‘you fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

King Solomon understood a few things about planning yet reminds us in Proverbs, “do not boast about tomorrow; for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” (27:1)

James understood the intoxicating lure of pride and power so he could warn his readers, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. You ought to say instead, “If the Lord is willing, then we will live and o this or that.” (4:13-15)

Paul understood future hope in face of uncertainty, writing “For our momentary, light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:17-18)

Jesus reminded his followers “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.” (Matt 6:34)

As followers of Jesus, we do have the certainty of tomorrow, what we don’t know is the location. Jesus knew his followers didn’t need to fret over the tomorrows of life because he would be preparing a much better home for them. “There are many dwelling places in my Father’s house. Otherwise, I would have told you, because I am going away to make ready a place for you.” (Luke 14:2)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer prayed just before he was hanged by the Nazis soldiers, “Oh, God, this is the end; but for me it is just the beginning.” Bonhoeffer’s tomorrow came but he found himself in a different location. “What we call the beginning is often the end and to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” –T.S. Eliot

Augustine wrote, “We have not lost our dear ones who have departed from this life, but have merely sent them ahead of us, so we also shall depart and shall come to that life where they will be more than ever dear as they will be better known to us, and where we shall love them without fear of parting.”

Realtors understand fully that it is all about “location, location, location” when selling property. A house in the middle of Manhattan will bring a king’s ransom compared to a much larger house in my hometown of Rush Springs, Oklahoma. Location is everything.  Judah Smith writes that “Jesus encourages us to think and live and pray about this earth from the perspective of “as it is in heaven.” Like Jesus, our lives should be dramatically impacted by the reality of eternity and heaven, because that is our ultimate home. This earthly existence is but for a moment. Heaven is eternal. We are to live our lives preoccupied by eternity.”

We have an amazing hope in knowing we always have a tomorrow. Yes, it can be a little disconcerting at times not knowing when we will experience this change of address. It is unbelievably hard on our family and friends when we move to our new location. However, what an overwhelming assurance to know our final destination has been prepared by Jesus himself. David ended the beautiful and comforting Psalm 23 by boldly saying, “I will live in the LORD’s house for the rest of my life.”

In his book, Heaven, Randy Alcorn writes, “We shouldn’t glorify or romanticize death—Jesus didn’t. He wept over it…. Death is painful, and it’s an enemy. But for those who know Jesus, death is the final pain and the last enemy…For the Christian, death is not the end of adventure but a doorway from a world where dreams and adventures shrink, to a world where dreams and adventures forever expand.”

Tomorrow is promised but the location is not. Tomorrow may be “This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Ps 118:24) Enjoy the day in all its fullness, living and seeking to do God’s will “on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Tomorrow is promised but the location is not. Tomorrow may be “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…. I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End” (Rev 21)

“Can you hear the sighing in the wind? Can you feel the heavy silence in the mountains? Can you sense the restless longing in the sea? Can you see it in the woeful eyes of an animal? Something’s coming…Something better. –Joni Eareckson Tada

Lord, thank you for our tomorrows wherever the location. You are the giver of life, both on earth and in heaven. “Our new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.”

God is great!