For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
When evangelist Billy Graham turned 91 last November, the Tennessean sent him some questions to answer. One involved the difficulties of aging. Graham said that the burdens of life remind us this world is not our final home. “My wife Ruth died almost two years ago,” he said, “and every day I miss her very, very much. But someday soon we’ll be together in Heaven–in God’s presence forever, free from all the burdens of this life. If our hope is truly in Christ, we know we are only pilgrims on this earth, en route to our eternal home in Heaven. Old age should make us look forward with joy to heaven.”1
Heaven is real, Christ is coming, and we should discipline our thoughts accordingly. If we’re pilgrims eager for an eternal city, we’ll be happier, harder-working, more forward-thinking people on earth, whatever our age. Our permanence isn’t on earth; we long for the city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). So let’s work till Jesus comes, then we’ll be gathered home.–From Turning Point
Alas! How we forget that we are but strangers and pilgrims on the earth; that we are journeying to our eternal home, and will soon be there!
Octavius Winslow
