This month we’re turning our hearts towards heaven and examining what Scripture says about what’s to come.
“We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”
(The Tempest, act 4, scene 1)
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks directing a drama camp through a production of The Tempest so I’ve got Shakespeare on the brain.
It’s the story of Prospero, once Duke of Milan, whose brother stole his kingdom and left him for dead in a damaged boat sent out to sea. Unbeknownst to the usurper, Prospero and his daughter Miranda made it to the shore of a deserted island where they live a charmed life ruling over the island. As the play begins, Prospero’s enemies find themselves on the same island, haunted by their misdeeds until at last Prospero reveals himself and sets everything right again. It’s a comedy, which means everyone gets a happy ending before the curtain falls, something we know is not always true in real life.
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” (Hebrews 11:13-16)
Strangers and Exiles
)ur history of faith is built on a long line of men and women who believed in the promises and character of God long before they had any proof.
Abraham left his home without knowing any details including where he was going, He obeyed because God promised to make him a great nation through whom all other nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:2-3). Even after God showed him the land of Canaan and allowed his barren wife Sarah to birth a son, Abraham lived his whole long life as a sojourner – a stranger among the natives.
“For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:10)
What does it mean to live as a stranger? For Abraham, it meant living tents, at the mercy of his neighbor’s good graces. Though he was a very wealthy man, he humbled himself, insisting not on his own rights but on the timing of God, whom he trusted. He could have come into the land boasting about the power and superiority of God. He could have waged war or negotiated a seat of influence. Instead, he “contented himself to …bear their unkindnesses patiently, to receive any favours from them thankfully, and to keep his heart fixed upon his home, the heavenly Canaan.” (Matthew Henry)
Such Stuff As Dreams
Today we live with the benefit of seeing God’s promises fulfilled through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:7-9). But like Abraham, we live in this world as sojourners, “seeking a homeland” and dreaming of the “better country” that is to come.
In the quote I opened with, Prospero is musing about life, how fleeting it all is. “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:14) Our time on this earth is a prelude to the reality of heaven, short, in view of eternity, but not insignificant. For by living and dying in faith we show our Lord and Father that we want what He has to offer. If we live out our time in humility, as guests of this world, if we recognize the promise that is now and not yet (link to Ali), if we keep the faith, greeting it from far off like Abraham, sure of the timing even when we do not understand (John 8:56), God will not be ashamed to be our God, for He has prepared for us a city.
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