“We Aren’t Home Yet”

Dr. W.A. Criswell told about the faithful missionary couple who returned to the United States on the same ship that brought Teddy Roosevelt home from a safari in Africa. Many reporters and photographers were on the dock, waiting to see Roosevelt and interview him and take pictures; but nobody was on hand to welcome home the veteran missionaries who had spent their lives serving Christ in Africa.

That evening, in their modest hotel room, the couple reviewed their arrival in New York City; and the husband was somewhat bitter.

“It isn’t fair,” he said to his wife. “Mr. Roosevelt comes home from a hunting trip, and the whole country is out to meet him. We get home after years of service, and nobody was there to greet us.”

But his wife had the right answer: “Honey, we aren’t home yet.”

So my fellow believers, when you get discouraged because it seems to so hard to live in this world…so much heartache, anxiety over finances, so many problems to deal with—it can seem almost overwhelming. Be encouraged! We’re not home yet!

As an old Gospel song goes:

“This World is not my home; I’m just a passing through,
My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue;
The angels beckon me, from heaven’s open door;
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore”