The Sickness

            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?

            Are you suffering from the same heavenly homesickness? The best cure for such a debilitation is to live a life in service for the one we are longing to see. He is preparing a special place for us to live with Him forever. Are you ready to go?