Jump Start # 3349

John 3:13 “And no one has ascended into Heaven, but He who descended from Heaven, even the Son of Man.”

It’s summertime. Schools out. Families are busy with summer activities that often include camps. Band camp. Football camp. Camps for kids. I have a grandchild who is in his first camp. I have been a counselor in camps many times. And, every year, there is one child who is homesick. He sits on the sidelines and doesn’t want to participate with the others. Tears well up in his little eyes. He just wants to go home. Many times, all it takes is a phone call. Talking to mom is all he needed to hear and by the time camp is over, he has had the best time of his life. But, sometimes that phone call isn’t enough. I’ve seen that parent have to come and take the child home before camp barely started. He was just too homesick.

I was thinking about that with our passage today. Do you think Jesus ever got homesick? This world and Heaven are very different. He did things on the planet that He never did in Heaven. The bodily form is something that was new and different for Jesus. Having to eat, sleep, deal with heat, bugs and people are things unique to here. Storms, demons, disease and death are all a part of our world. That’s life, we’d say. But it sure wasn’t that way in Heaven.

I know what it’s like to be homesick. I get that sometimes when I’m on the road. Another night in a strange bed. Things you are not used to. Foods you don’t normally eat. Out of your schedule and rhythm of doing things. There is something about “home sweet home.” Sitting in your own chair. Sleeping on your own pillow. Food out of your own frig. Nothing like home. It may not be fancy. And, the to-do list may be a mile long, but it’s home. Our homes are a reflection of us. We decorate it according to our tastes. We know where everything is. We are most comfortable when we are home.

For three decades Jesus was away from His home. I wonder if He longed to get back. I wonder if at night He thought about what Heaven looked like. The angels. The Father. The perfection of the perfect.

Was Jesus ever home-sick?

Here are a few thoughts:

First, He never complained about things on earth. BUGS. SNAKES. I’ve been to Israel in the summer. It was 108 one day. You don’t read about Jesus saying, “How do you deal with this heat?” Jesus is one who could do something about these things. He could stop storms. Yet, we don’t find Him complaining. We can’t do anything about these things and we complain all the time.

Second, Jesus remained focused on what He was to do. His work was with people and that’s where you find Jesus. He surrounded Himself with people. Hurting people. Confused people. Lost people. You don’t find Jesus sharing with Martha how to make biscuits. You don’t find Jesus telling Matthew about calculators. He knew but that wasn’t why He was here. Jesus came to seek the lost. Jesus came to save us. That’s where you find Jesus, doing what He was supposed to be doing.

Third, this world is all you and I have ever known. We have never met someone who went to Heaven for a weekend and was back to work on Monday. All the books about people dying and going to Heaven and coming back are bogus. Way too many doctrinal problems for those things to be true. This is all we know. Heaven will be a new experience for us. But we know it will be wonderful, because it’s God’s home. We know it will be wonderful because it is where Jesus was from.

He came from there to us, so we could go to Him.

Homesick for Heaven…that’s a wonderful thought!

Roger