Homesick for Heaven

By Greg Laurie, Op-ed contributor Friday, January 30, 2009

He has planted eternity in the human heart . . . — Ecclesiastes 3:11

Have you ever really been homesick? Even in a beautiful place, surrounded by people you really like, you want to return home as quickly as possible. As they say, there is no place like home.

No matter what your actual home on earth is like, there is one home that all of us should be very homesick for. That place is called heaven. Deep inside of us, there is a homesickness for heaven, almost as though we have a homing instinct guiding us there.

It's amazing how God has built the homing instinct into animals. Against all odds, salmon come home from the sea to spawn in the rivers of their birth. In San Juan Capistrano, year after year, the swallows return to their nests at the mission. There is something built into those fish, those birds, that brings them home.

God has built that into each of us, too: an instinct, a desire, a homesickness for heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "He has planted eternity in the human heart." And because of that, we will never be fully satisfied with this life. Nothing will ever measure up to heaven.

You were created to know God. You were created to go to heaven.

God has put this homing instinct in you, and it will only be satisfied when you see Him face to face. Are you ready to do that? Are you ready to go home?

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Used with Permission