If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return.
This is a snippet referring to Abraham’s descendants. Abraham, by faith alone, left the country he knew, and eventually he and his barren wife Sarah had more descendants than stars in the sky. The descendants were also in a strange land. If they’d been thinking about where they’d come from, they could have returned. But Paul goes on to write, that they desired a better country, a heavenly country.
This is a little frightening to me. If they’d just thought about where they came from, they would have had the opportunity to return. Instead, they kept their eyes forward, and didn’t wish for the world they’d known.
How often do we look back at places, times or situations we’ve come from, instead of pushing on? Sometimes we look back and wish to return to a time or place that was easier, kinder, simpler. We wish to return to a better time behind us. Other times, we think about the land we’ve come from for no other reason that it was known – even if it was not great, at least there was some constancy.
Thinking about where we’re going or where we currently are, sometimes all we want is the certainty of what was, even if it wasn’t all that great. In this reading, simply by thinking about the land we’ve left, we’re given the opportunity to return to it. While that may seem like a great option, it negates the wonderful journey we’re on, or the place God has prepared for us in the future.
But if we think about the land we’ve come from, God will oblige, and we can return, turning away from what’s ahead. May I always have the faith to face forward towards the heavenly country, regardless of the perceived comfort and constancy of where I’ve come from.
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