Day 57: Jesus Knows Where His Home Is

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. 1 PETER 2:9–11, EMPHASIS MINE

THREE YEARS AGO, I got to take Missy on an African safari and it was like a dream come true for me because I’ve loved that continent since I was about seven years old and we had a missionary from Africa stay in our house. Which means that for fifty years I romanticized the idea of camping out in the wilds of Africa. So, you can probably imagine my jet-lagged delight when Missy and I arrived in South Africa—after thirty-seven hours of travel—and the manager of the resort cheerfully informed me that she’d upgraded our booking to a private lodge on a bluff overlooking a river where wild game were guaranteed to gather at sunrise and sunset.

What she didn’t tell me was that our lodge was located several miles into the bush, so we had to be escorted there by two guides with automatic rifles to protect us en route because of the lions and other big cats. It wasn’t until after those same guides had thoroughly swept our lodge making sure it was animal-free, checked the locks on every window and door, warned me not to open any of those same doors or windows until they came to fetch us the following morning, and were waving goodbye, that they mentioned seeing an eight-foot black mamba right outside our “luxury lodge” earlier that day, which is why they swept the premises so thoroughly.

Then they zoomed off in their Land Rover before I had a chance to faint. Because I’d spent much of our thirty-seven-hour trek to Africa reading up on the wild animals we might encounter on safari and knew that black mambas are one of the fastest, most venomous snakes in the world that can grow up to fourteen feet long. Two drops of their venom can kill a person. Plus, it’s imperative not to look directly at or move toward a mamba because they interpret that as aggression and will usually respond by attacking, oftentimes launching themselves through the air toward their victim before sinking their fangs into said victim’s flesh.

I tried to remain calm while getting Missy settled into the beautiful mosquito-netted bed, then I began praying out loud while unpacking our suitcases and getting myself ready for bed. But when I turned out the lights and heard a persistent thump-shuffle-thump sound in the pitch-black darkness of our remote lodge miles away from another human, I felt my pulse quicken. By the time I found the remote to turn on the lights, the sound had gotten much louder and I realized it was coming from inside a tall woven basket in the corner of the bedroom that looked exactly like those baskets snake-charmers keep cobras in. I quickly picked up the phone to call the main lodge, only to find out there was no connection and, of course, there was no cell service.

My mind was racing, trying to figure out how to deal with what I was sure was a coiled mamba getting ready to launch itself at us because we obviously couldn’t hike two miles back to the main lodge in the dark with predators roaming all around us and there was no way to call for help. So I began rooting around for some kind of weapon, while keeping an eye on the swaying hamper, but the only thing I could find was an umbrella. I grabbed it and began tiptoeing stealthily toward the mystery creature, determined to save my child. Unfortunately, when I “hooked” the top of the basket to keep it from dumping the snake out on the floor, a big hairy critter that looked like a cross between a kangaroo and a bug-eyed rat came flying out with a loud shriek.

I didn’t have time to feel relief that it wasn’t a mamba because that huge roo-rat began shrieking and racing across the curtain rods around the room, and since I didn’t know whether it was poisonous or carnivorous, I started chasing it, swinging the umbrella like a sword, which caused it to panic and spray urine like some kind of marsupial mace. It probably only took three or four minutes of flailing to herd it out of the sliding glass doors, but it felt like hours. I slumped on the floor afterwards and had to focus to keep from hyperventilating. I finally got back in bed—taking the umbrella with me—but, of course, didn’t sleep a wink because jousting with that crazed vermin (I found out later the intruder was a giant galago, which are louder than they are dangerous) jerked me back into the reality that we were no longer in the safe familiarity of our beloved Tennessee hills; we were in the wilds of Africa!

Hopefully it won’t take a thirty-seven-hour three-plane journey and a screeching intruder to remind you that, as a Christ-follower, you’re no longer at home either. In fact, Hebrews 11:13 describes those of us who’ve put our hope in Jesus as “foreigners and temporary residents on the earth,” which is reminiscent of how Jesus describes Himself: “Jesus told him, ‘Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head’” (Matt. 8:20). Keep in mind, this verse follows our Savior’s assurance in Matthew 6 that our heavenly Father will care for His children better than He did for the birds and the flowers (vv. 25–34).54 So it’s less about becoming literally destitute or transient than it is about making sure our home is in Him. Said another way, Jesus knew where His true home was, and so should we. Jesus and us, we are temporary citizens in this fallen world, our real home being the new heavens and new earth—the recreated, regenerated world that awaits us on the other side of resurrection. Our true home is with Jesus in a world set right again.

The truth is we’re probably going to stick out like sore thumbs and fifth wheels in the company of family, friends, and coworkers who haven’t met Jesus yet and are happy as clams in this fallen world. But if we live like Jesus lived—showing others that we don’t need the temporary comforts that a world disrupted by sin can offer (which are actually meager offerings in the scheme of things!)—we can help those around us remember there’s a truer and better home, and Father of that home, awaiting us all!

• IN WHAT WAYS is it obvious to you that this world is fallen? Asked another way, what parts of this fallen life often cause you to either mourn or long for the world to come?
• ON THE FLIP side, what ways have you perhaps grown too comfortable or complacent in this fallen world? Asked another way, what parts of this life tempt you to not only forget, but lose your longing for that recreated, regenerated world that lies on the other side of this one?
• READ 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17. What shifted in you after you put your hope in Jesus? What “old thing” doesn’t show up in your heart, mind, and actions anymore?