The "in-between"

If our home is heaven and due to our faith we are 'homeward bound', why are we here on planet earth? Why aren't we in heaven currently? What are we to make of this life right now?

According to Ray Warren's Purpose Driven Life, God’s view of our life is both a test and a trust. It is a test because the world around us does not want us to follow God’s plans; it wants us to get in step with what the rest of the world is doing. It is also a test because their is Someone who is working hard to turn our hearts away from God.

But life is also a trust. One definition of a trust according to the English dictionary is, “a legal arrangement by which one person holds and manages money or property belonging to someone else.” There is a hymn that is used in many churches after the offering is collected that speaks of God’s trust and goes like this, “We give thee but Thine own, whate’er the gift may be. All that we have is Thine alone-a trust, O Lord, from Thee.”

Warren Wiersbe said in his autobiography, Be Myself, “If life is to have meaning, and if God’s will is to be done, all of us have to accept who we are and what we are, give it back to God, and thank Him for the way He made us. What I am, is God’s gift to me. What I do with it, is my gift to Him.”

But we must also realise that this life is still inherently good. God created the world and us and saw that it was "very good". But because of the brokeness of humanity due to the fall, we remain in this world in anticipation of a time when God will renew and set everything right again that became broken because of sin. So not only is it a test and a trust, it is also a 'tarry'. It's a period of waiting for the time when Jesus fulfills his promise "Behold I am making all things new" (Rev 21:5).