As my husband and I strolled the isles of children’s books, one book pierced me. “Baby’s First Bible.” My first thoughts shot straight to the reality that I won’t buy Azaiah his first bible. I won’t sit and rock him telling him stories of David killing the giant or Jesus calming the storm. I won’t sing him songs about “Building Up the Temple” or how “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” My heart ached for my baby.
But then the REAL reality hit me. It would be stupid for me to want to tell my kid stories about people that he is feasting with today. Why lament the stolen opportunity to tell him about King David when he is at the banquet table with him? Why recount the days of old when he is living a new?
Those heroes I love to tell my children about, well, they aren’t here anymore. They are in a new country. They are in a heavenly homeland. And Azaiah is with them.
All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Heb. 11:13-16
So today, I will choose to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). When I want to dwell in the sorrow of thing I won’t get to do, I will remember, I am just sojourner heading to a different land. And when I get there Azaiah will get to introduce ME to all those heroes.
