It’s
that feeling when you go over for the first sleepover as a six year old. The
next time is during the first week at summer camp when you are nine. Then it
happens again when you leave for academy at age fifteen. You think you have
mastered the emotion by eighteen, but it comes right back when you get to
college. Does it ever end? Will I ever be too old for such a sentiment? Can I
ever feel right again?
I have been back in the United
States for about 2 weeks now. Michael, my cousin, greeted me at the airport in
Southern California and took me straight to my grandparents’ retirement living
facility. The next week and a half afforded me many opportunities to visit with
some of my closest friends from college. On Thursday, I headed north to
Seattle, Washington, where my brother and I enjoyed the adventure of camping
out at the foothills of the snowy-capped mountains. A babbling brook as a
next-door neighbor allowed for a pleasant ambiance while the mummy bag and
winter coat provided necessary warmth. But the adventure hasn’t stopped yet. I enjoyed a tour across the country on Amtrak and have spent the last week with the Eller family. And after the Eller’s farm…
That sensation of homesickness is
setting in. No, has set in. It all started about 2 weeks ago as I left my
sisters at the bus station in Mexico. Fear and anxiety gripped my heart. I
would be missing so much in my time away from home: family leaving for other
parts of the mission field, crazy adventures of every day life, birthdays, new
experiments in the kitchen, mission trip to Mexico, completion of buildings,
welcoming in the Sabbath with my whole family, rainy days and rubber boots,
movie nights with pipoca, AY, keeping the fields mowed, late night pep talks.
Life would not be stopping because I was leaving. But even now, I can feel
encouraged. I can have the assurance that, if God permits, I will be returning
home to Belize in just a short time.
The reality is much larger than
this, though. The truth is that I am homesick for heaven. Just this weekend, I
heard two people speak of friends who lost small children as victims of cruel
death. Family can be seen losing health. Evil is abounding on all sides and the
intensity is growing constantly. Troublesome times are here! So what am I doing
to make ready for going home? Am I doing my part in helping the family to grow
by reaching out to my lost brothers and sisters? I say that I am desperate for
Jesus to come, but do my words and actions have the same message?
There is a hymn in the Himnario Adventista called,
“La Biblia Nos Habla de
Cristo” (In English it is called “The Theme of the Bible is Jesus”). The
refrain speaks to me every time I hear this song:
¿Te hallas listo a encontrar al
Señor?
¿Lo haces todo con fe, con amor?
¿Has peleado por fe la batalla
del bien?
¿Pueden otros a Cristo en ti
ver?
¿Eres fiel por doquiera que vas?
¿Puedes tù contemplarlo en su
faz y triunfante decir: “Este es mi Dios”?
¿Puedes tù encontrar al Señor?
Are
you ready to meet your Savior?
Do
you do everything with faith, with love?
Have
you fought the fight with faith?
Can
others see Christ in you?
Are
you faithful wherever you go?
And
come face to face with it and say “This is my God”?
Can
you come to the Lord?
