Vacation

This is the time of year when many people go off to some place away from home to rest and have some fun.  We call it vacation.  Over the next couple of weeks, we will look at some similarities between vacations and the Christian life.

Our vacations are usually planned far in advance.  We first decide that we’re going to take a vacation and the place where we’ll go.  Then we make reservations for lodging and begin preparing for the trip and the stay away from home.  But there’s something else we do; we start looking forward to the day we actually leave.  We anticipate the wonderful time we’ll have and the place we’ll stay.  No matter what goes on in the time before vacation, we can look beyond it to a better time a coming.

Now, think about our lives.  We first realize we’re going to go someplace when we leave here and we decide we want to go to Heaven and not Hell.  So, we get saved which gives us a reservation in Heaven and a very nice place to stay.  Next, we should begin making preparations of the things that we’ll need, “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” (Matthew 6:20).  But there’s something else we should do; start looking forward to the day we actually leave. Of course, we don’t know exactly when that will be but we anticipate the wonderful time we’ll have and the place we’ll stay.  No matter what goes on in the time before we leave, we can look beyond it to a better time a coming.

Do you see?  If we’re saved, then Heaven is our destination and we’re going there sometime in the future.  We SHOULD be making preparations and we SHOULD be very excited with the anticipation of it and looking forward to it.  Think about how we anticipate vacations.  Think about how we anticipate Heaven.  The apostle Paul said it this way: “I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,” (Philippians 3:13).