This World Is Not My Home

When fear comes creeping in.....
When sadness looms larger than life...
When the questions threaten....
When we can't make sense out of an event...
It is good to remember that

"This world is not my home
I'm just a-passing through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue."

When a school just 20 miles up the way from you has a shooting event....
When two young girls are shot down in the prime of life...
When you get a call from your own school district and the goose bumps rise fast on your skin...
It is pertinent to remember that 



"The angels beckon me
From heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore."

When you have to talk to your little ones about hard topics...
When one of your own tells terrible tales of what happened at his own school...
When you can't think of the words for innocent minds to understand about evil....
It is imperative to remember


"Oh Lord, you know
I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home
Then Lord what will I do."

When you wonder how much longer we can be left down here...
When you long for Home...
When you need Him...
It is joyous to remember that 


"The angels beckon me
From heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore."

Last Friday midday as I was loading my kids' dirty clothing into the washing machine, my cell phone started to ring.  I answered it and immediately heard a voice from our school district "With great sadness we...".  Let me tell you that the fear came quick and hard.  "Which school????  Our school????  Please Lord,  not our school."  The message quickly let us know that it was not any of the schools in our district, but one to our immediate north.  A quick look at the internet and I could see all the sad details.  Who did this?  Another bullied child?  Someone without friends whose heart has been growing more bitter by the day?  A group of kids dressed in all  black?  Nope,  nope and nope.  A popular boy.  On the football team.  Recently voted "freshman prince" to the homecoming court.  How does this happen, we wonder?  The answer is simple, really.  Human nature.  Sin.  It could be any of us.  We are all a part of it.  Understanding it?   Not so simple.  Explaining it to our children?  Not simple.  How do we keep our children from being part of it?  We don't.  We can't.  We cannot make them do or not do anything.  But we can pray.  And we must pray.  We must.  For those already hurt and for those who may be hurt some day in the future.  And we can joyfully remember that this world is not our home.