Isn’t it amazing how fast children grow up? How exciting it is for parents to see their children develop along the way, to transition from crawling to walking or from babbling to speaking.

Imagine that you decide you want to get in shape and lose a pound or two. You buy into a dieting program – a book or an app – and you learn all about it.  You become so convinced of its merits that you join social media groups for this plan and tell everyone about it. 

Take a moment and travel in your imagination to the end of time—to the great day of judgment.  The record books are open and you are standing before God the judge.  Imagine that God says to you, ‘Why should I spare you hell and welcome you to heaven?  Why should I give you life and not death?” 

Life can indeed be a perilous journey. John Newton’s famous hymn, “Amazing Grace”, speaks of "dangers, toils and snares" that he experienced firsthand. On one occasion, he was thrown from a horse, narrowly missing impalement on a row of sharp stakes.

Have you ever been homesick?  Perhaps you experienced homesickness as a child while attending a camp?  Christian believers are very much a pilgrim people who find themselves homesick for heaven.  As the writer to the Hebrews reminds us: ‘….here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come’ (Hebrews 13:14).