What we love, we love to think of.
It doesn’t matter if times are good or bad, if we’re rejoicing on the mountaintop or wading through a valley season, our thoughts wander to, find comfort in & even rest on that which we truly love.
I sometimes think of our hearts as a “homing device”, (a mechanism placed in a missile that guides it toward its target.)
We need be careful, however, to not let it be led by emotion, for then the target becomes something less than satisfying.
I can’t say that I can back this with a verse, but I believe there’s a Divine design for our hearts to long for home 👉🏽not a house, but a warm place of security, enveloped in unconditional love & a peace that’s tangible, but inexplicable.
When the Israelites were in Babylonian captivity, they sat beside the river banks & wept. I can almost picture the weeping willows that probably swayed in the breeze behind them while the ebb & flow of the water matched the sorrow in their hearts.
The writer declares, “If I forget you, Jerusalem…may my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I fail to remember you, if I don’t make Jerusalem my greatest joy.”
As I read the last line, I wondered:
What is MY greatest joy?
We too have a Jerusalem awaiting our arrival with walls of jasper, 12 gates of pearl & golden streets as transparent as glass! (See Rev. 21!)
My old pastor exhorted us to think about eternity daily because it lifts our vision & recalibrates our hearts, reminding us of home eternal!
When we DO “remember Jerusalem”, (eternity w Jesus):
-all of the cares of this world
-the unresolved issues
-the shaky things far beyond our control, begin to fade.
It’s easy to “forget home”…
May we all have hearts that long for Home…much like the Israelites, may we remember that we reside as foreigners in this land of the lost! May our lives become a homing device thats leads others to know The One Who makes The Way to our eternal home in heaven!
Father, may our tounges stick to the roof of our mouths if we forget You! Use sadness & hardships to remind us of our need of You!
Holy Spirit, be the homing device in our hearts that keeps our thoughts, eyes & hearts heavenward!