Returning Home
I’m sure that you have breathed that wonderful sigh of relief when you return home from a trip. Even if you enjoyed the trip, there is something wonderful about returning to the familiar and friendly place you call “home.”
I have to wonder what it would be like to return home after leaving because of persecution - something that Christians in Mosul are experiencing right now. What would it be like to return to the neighborhood and city that had been so hostile, so full of fear and violence just weeks previously? What would it be like to live in a place where your life was threatened simply because of your faith?
I can only imagine the answers to these questions, but as I ponder them, I am reminded that as Christians, their real home is not in Mosul. In fact, it’s not on earth at all. During their pilgrimage here, they have been put in tough circumstances, but their hope is not in stability and peace here, but in heavenly eternal peace. How hard it must be to focus on this future hope in the presence of present suffering and fear!
As we pray for them, let’s pray that they would keep their focus on eternal hope.