Imagine Heaven 預覽

See your true citizenship!
By Rev. Patrick Feldhus, Chaplain

When we vote, we exercise our rights as citizens of the United States. We are free to vote for presidents, senators, and representatives. 

When Paul wrote to the Philippians, they, too, understood citizenship. Because Philippi was a Roman colony, its people were citizens of Rome. They received the perks of being Roman citizens. They could call on Caesar to hear their cases if they thought they were unfairly treated. 

But here, Paul tells us that we are citizens of somewhere even more glorious than anything on Earth. We are citizens of heaven, the very home of God himself. But this citizenship is costly. However, we did not have to purchase this citizenship because Jesus bought our citizenship with his holy, precious blood. Our true forever home is not an earthly kingdom like Philippi or the United States. It is heaven!

We are blessed to be able to see where our true citizenship is. We are blessed to know without a doubt that heaven is ours. And we eagerly await the return of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The only reason why we can see heaven as our true home and why we can eagerly anticipate the return of our Savior is because Jesus gathered us under his wings as he spread his arms out on the cross. 

He gathered us to himself. He did that knowing that we would fall back into sin every day of our lives. The fact that we continue to sin does not stop him from bringing us back into his kingdom through the message of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. And he constantly focuses our attention on the glorious things to come. 

No earthly kingdom can compare to the glory that we will have in our heavenly home. 

Prayer: Dear Holy Father, thank you for showing me where our true citizenship belongs. Help me to find comfort when things on Earth are difficult. Let us wait with joyful anticipation of Jesus’s return to bring us to our heavenly kingdom.  In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.