Longing for home: the life of an upstart 

What does it mean to be an upstart in this physical and temporal life? And why is it so important where our home is? 

Home.

This word can mean many things depending on each person.

My wife and I recently bought our first home, and for us that is our home. It is the place where we can lay our head down, relax and be ourselves; the place to which we want to return after a long journey, not because it is a house, but because it is a home.

Our home 

The building itself is not what matters. A home can be an apartment or even a shack. In fact, it doesn't even have to be a construction. For Mary and me, our home can also be Virginia or Massachusetts — the states we grew up in and where our loved ones and childhood memories are.  

A "home" can have many forms and aspects. But, after all, it is where we plant our flag and say: "Here I belong."

Except ... what happens when we don't belong?  

Away from home

Followers of God have a long history of not fitting in with their environment - of not belonging at all. When Abraham entered the Promised Land, he did so as a "stranger and upstart" (Genesis 23: 4, Updated King James Version). And centuries later, God brought the nation of Israel out of slavery — descendants of the patriarch — to bring it into that very land with a reminder: “My land is; for you strangers and foreigners are to me ”(Leviticus 25:23). Later, one of the most prominent kings of Israel admitted to God: "I am a stranger to you, and an upstart, like all my parents" (Psalms 39:12).    

It is an interesting word, upstart; an old word that we don't use much anymore. But 'upstart' simply refers to someone who lives far from home. If you are going to visit a friend for a week, for example, it is an upstart in your home. If you're studying at university, you may be an upstart in a campus apartment. And if it is Abraham, moving from here to there and living in stores, he is an upstart too. 

Abraham no doubt had reason to call himself an upstart. When God told him to go to the Promised Land, he had to leave his home behind and become a kind of nomad. But what about Israel, the nation that inherited and lived in the land that God promised Abraham? What about David, a king of Israel who lived in his palace in the midst of God's people? How come they were upstarts in their own land — their own home?  

In search of a homeland

The author of the book of Hebrews dedicates several verses to men and women of faith who followed God and remained faithful to his call even in difficult times.

Abraham was one of them. Also his wife Sara. Also Moses, who led the Israelites to the Promised Land. And also David, a man after the heart of God (Acts 13:22).

All these heroes of the Bible "according to faith died ... and confessing that they were foreigners and pilgrims on earth" (Hebrews 11:13).

Foreigners and pilgrims. Upstarts on Earth. That is the key to the puzzle. Most outsiders have their home in another city, another state, or another country. But the upstarts in Hebrews 11 had their home in another world — a Kingdom to come. They viewed their life on this Earth as a time away from their true home.   

But why?

The passage continues: “Because those who say this clearly imply that they are looking for a homeland; for if they had been thinking of the one from which they came, they certainly had time to return. But they longed for a better one, that is, heavenly; therefore God is not ashamed to call himself their God; for a city has prepared for them ”(vv. 14-16).

When the author of Hebrews spoke of "a homeland," he used the Greek word patris , which refers to a "homeland." In other words, the men and women of Hebrews 11 were not just looking for a place to call home; they were looking for something specific. They were looking for their homeland, their homeland — the place where they could plant their flag and say, "I belong here."     

Accepting the dichotomy

Being a Christian implies accepting a very particular dichotomy:

Our home is not in this world.

We are born in this world, we live in this world and, unless there are great advances in space travel, we will die in this world.

But this world is not our home. It is not the place where we should plant our flag. 

There are several physical places that Mary and I call "home." But we both know that they are all temporary. They are places we have come to love and appreciate during our time on this Earth, but our true home, our Patris , is on a site that I neither gone.   

Although we do have an idea of ​​how it is.

Streets of gold

The Bible offers beautiful descriptions of the new Earth and city that God is preparing for his people. It will have 12 foundations, all adorned with precious stones (Revelation 21: 19-20). Its streets will be made of the purest gold. Its 12 doors will be huge pearls guarded by angels (vv. 12, 21); and a river will flow through it with waters as pure and clear as crystal (Revelation 22: 1).

An impressive image, isn't it? But the truth is that I'm not so interested in the appearance of the city as what will be inside it. That is what really stands out:

God the Father and Jesus Christ will not have a temple in this city because they will both live there, and their single presence will be brighter than the sun and the moon (Revelation 21: 22-23). Both will have a personal and close relationship with all the inhabitants of the city, because “the tabernacle of God with men, and he will dwell with them; and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will be no more death, no more crying, no crying, no pain; because the first things happened. ” (Revelation 21: 3-4).

No more pain. No more sadness. No more crying. This city, the Kingdom of God, will be different from anything we have seen before. Who will inhabit it? "Those who keep his commandments [of God]" (Revelation 22:14, King James Version). Everyone who agrees to live according to the perfect way of God will have a place in that Kingdom that will be based on his laws.     

This is what our home looks like. 

The "return" home

Abraham, Moses, David and the other heroes of the faith died without setting foot in the home to which they were marching. But they died "according to faith ... not having received what was promised, but looking at it from a distance, and believing it, and saluting it, and confessing that they were foreigners and pilgrims on earth" (Hebrews 11:13).

Our life in this world - this society, this era of human misrule - is temporary. We are upstarts whether we like it or not, and eventually we will stop being one. If we are willing to accept it — to wait for “the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10) as Abraham did — then you and I will join the ranks of the heroes who lived before us waiting for the promises.

Waiting for your home.

One day that city will come. The New Jerusalem will descend "from heaven, from God, ready as a bride adorned for her husband" (Revelation 21: 2). And on that day, God will tell us and all of his children through the ages:

"Welcome home. This is where they belong. "