Heavenly Minded

Have you ever heard the saying, "He's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good?"

That's not the kind of heavenly minded I'm talking about today. The Lord intends for the Christian to be a light in the world, an ambassador for Him, if you will. We represent Christ to everyone we meet.

But, as we are walking out this journey Home in everyday life, our focus needs to be on Heaven.

We are strangers in a far country. In fact, the Bible calls us aliens. We can't get so comfortable in the here and now that we forget all about the future.

And what a future it will be!

I heard this illustration long, long ago. In fact, I have no idea who said it, or the exact words used but the gist of the idea has stayed with me all these years. So, here in my own words:

When we were in the womb, we were in the perfect environment. We were comfortably cared for by our mother's body. We had the perfect temperature, fed the correct amounts, and never needed a thing. Oh, sure, the quarters got a little cramped as time went on, but our bodies were so limber we could curl up in a ball and rest blissfully. We heard our mother's voice and were comforted. We could have stayed there forever and been content.

But after about 38-40 weeks, our perfect little world became not so perfect. In fact, we started to feel pressure. The walls of our little domain pressed against and literally thrust us through the tightest place imaginable. We were scared, and thinking, "Noooooooo, don't make me leave, I like it here. It's all I've ever known." (Perhaps those thoughts are why babies cry soon after birth?)

However, once the trauma of birth was over, we looked around with wide-eyed wonder. We see light and color for the very first time! We can stretch our bodies! We are cuddled and held by loving arms and can see the face that belongs to the words we've been hearing.

And we grow to like life here on earth. In fact, we cling tenaciously to this life we've been given. We try our best to give our bodies what they need because we want to live. We like it here. It's all we can remember.

Often, the passage from this life to the next is just as much a struggle as the birth process was at the beginning of our journey. We fight as hard as we can to stay in the world we know.

Beyond compare: Just like there is no comparison with the world of the womb and the world here on earth, there is no comparison with life here and life in Heaven. The colors, sights and sounds will be even more awe-inspiring. Our bodies will be whole, healthy and able to do so much more than in our former life (whatever that body might look like!) Best of all, we will be able to see the face that belongs to the words we've read in the Bible and felt in our hearts!

(If you know who originally used this illustration, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.)

It's worth everything we have to go through to get there; which is why I think we need to be heavenly minded while walking on this earth. Don't hold this world too close, as wonderful as it sometimes can be. Trusting in our Savior, and what He has for us, should always be on our minds.

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I'm so glad you are here! Follow me each day as I attempt to define what a Christian is ... and isn't.

I'm always interested in your thoughts. Let me know if there is a word Christians use that you don't understand. I'd be interested to write about it.

This post was written for Day Eight of my A-Z Blogging Challenge series, "You Might Be a Christian ... from A-Z." Go here each day to see all of my posts each day as they go live.

If you don't understand how a person becomes a Christian, you might want to visit my page, "A Ticket Home." 

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