GROWING SEEDS: Pressing Towards Home

 

"Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it on my own; but this one thing I do:

Forgetting what lies behind (me) and straining forward to what lies ahead (for me),

I press on toward the goal (Home) for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 3:13-14

 

One of my favorite movies ever is The Wizard of Oz.  No matter how many times I watch it, I always cry.  Dorothy's Fear.....her Hope.....her Searching....her Travel on a treacherous road to find her way Home.  It's impossible not to see the parallel with the road we're on....that road to Home.

 

Paul said it best in his words above, "Forgetting what lies behind and straining to see (Heaven), I press on toward the goal".  Like Dorothy, we are all walking this yellow brick road called Life on this earth....following the path as it winds through the hourglass of our lives.  Each turn...each valley....each mountain, we are inching our way towards Home.  Each grain of sand that falls are moments we have completed. 

 

But so often, we let life distract us.  We turn the hourglass upside down and we look back on the road we just traveled and take our eyes off the road ahead.  We return to pick up the pieces that should be left in the past and we carefully place them on our backs, weighing ourselves down as we journey on. 

 

We wonder why this road is so hard and why we feel so weighed down.  We forget we're carrying our past on our backs....and how difficult it is to stay focused on the road ahead when we feel the weight of the road behind us.  It's hard to fight off the evil monkeys of the Wicked Witch of the West when our muscles ache from the weight we have chosen to carry. 

 

And then Glenda arrives.....the good witch....and she longs to take this weight off our backs we've been carrying.  Her constant reminder, "There's No Place Like Home" gives us the Strength and Hope we need that all it takes is a little Faith and a lot of Love for us to be free of the past and proceed on the road ahead.  She is always by our side and watching over us as we journey on.

 

And then we turn the corner and we can see it up ahead.  Home.  We long to be there.....a place where only happiness is allowed...a place where Fear and Evil have no power and Heaven's door is slammed hard in their face. 

 

But there's one more thing the Owner of Heaven wants to make sure of before we are given a key to His Home.  Are we there for Him.....or for those pieces of the past that have gone before us?  The answer to this question lies within you. 

 

When you think of Heaven, what or who is the first thing you long to see?  This, my friends, is the answer to the question.