The Call and Pull of Home

   I just read an op/ed piece by a native West Virginian. (Click here if you'd like to read it too.)  I began to feel a little bit of nostalgia and pull of the old homestead as I read.  I recalled wandering over the hills and wading through creeks, digging up rocks and making "forts" from sticks and honeysuckle vines.  I remembered also the beauty of the woods as the rain had just stopped, the last drippings from the leaves were still heard occasionally and the mist began to rise as the sun came out and began evaporating the moisture.

   I read all that and then wondered.

   What about Heaven?  Yes, it's a handy segue that West Virginia's unofficial motto is "Almost Heaven, West Virginia!"  (Thank you, John Denver!)  But if West Virginia is almost as in not quite the real thing and I am feeling a little bit of wanting to experience it again, how much more would and should the REAL Heaven bend my soul and my affections to want to come home.

   How did I get a bit attached to West Virginia?  I lived there.  I experienced it.  I was in its hills and breathed the crisp air of its Autumn.  Each morning I woke up in it left a mark on me and upon my mind.  Each night I went to sleep there helped seal its hold on my memories.

   In the same way I become attached to Heaven.  Of course, I don't live in Heaven.  Not yet, at least.  But to the extent that I "live" in the Bible and "live" in God's presence, I will be experiencing more and more of Heaven which will be my home some glad day.  I should wake up in the presence of Heaven by reading God's Word—which is His love letter to me, describing Himself and His Heaven where I'll live.  I should go to sleep each night, bathing my soul in the beauty of His holiness and His presence so that it will cement Heaven's transcendent realities indelibly upon my soul.

   Truly, all my memories should gather around Heaven.  I should hear Heaven's voice in the morning as she calls me to partake of that Heavenly Bread called the Word of God.  I should have that feeling that anticipates that great day when my faith becomes sight, then on that day, my vision clear, I will pass from here to life.  I realize all this and recognize that I am so far from that reality.  Yet, by God's grace, there is the call and the pull of my Heavenly Home within my heart.


- D. Benning