Heaven is Like Home Buying

Okay... so... {enter giddy giggles here}... we're moving!
I've been patiently trying to avoid telling you, not because I didn't want to, but because we have been waiting on the seller to find a new home first. The rumor is that she is going to make a decision maybe as soon as this week so my sharing could still be considered premature but if something happens and we don't move, God is still God and He is still good, so why not share the excitement?
Anyway, I'll tell you more about the house when it's "ours all ours" but for now I'll just say that Hubs and I created a mental list of things we wanted in a home never expecting to find it all in one place and in our price range and yet this house checks off almost everything on our list down to the tiniest details.
I really couldn't be more excited!
I've done several "happy dances of joy" over all this.
{Good thing my kids are too young to be embarrassed!}

Okay...
Moving on...

Last year, my brother and his wife bought a new home of their own {our family is apparently doing it's part to stimulate the economy} and Hubs and I were able to watch the process so that we knew what we were getting into. I talked with my sister-in-law often about what she was going through and how she felt about it all and through it all something hit me that I haven't been able to shake...

Heaven is like home buying.

When the search became serious for Hubs and I, and we knew that moving was in our future, something changed in us. I felt it. You may have had this experience too. Once I knew that I was going to be packing up and heading to a future home, a place better suited for our family's needs, I stopped caring about "the unimportant" in our current home. I don't mean that I stopped taking care of what lay inside these walls. We still don't let the water run over the tub to rot the floors. I still vacuum often to save these precious wood floors. I still maintain the gift that we have been given in this wonderful place but my heart isn't longing to make this place perfect anymore. I've stopped caring that we didn't finish painting the mudroom. I've stopped worrying about how we were going to arrange the kids' sleeping setup. I've stopped making plans for adding on to make this place comfortable or buying new furniture to seat more people. My treasure isn't stored up here anymore. I still live here, but my heart is no longer here.
My heart longs for our new home. My daily activity is here but my mind often wanders to our new home.
I can't help but think that's how we're supposed to feel about heaven.
This earth and our life on it is a gift. We have been handpicked and placed here to give God glory. In being a gift, God allows us to enjoy it and find happiness in it's beauty. Because of sin, earth has it's unpleasant parts too. There are ugly things about being here but we are to maintain it. We are to subdue it.
But this isn't it. This isn't all there is.
We have a hope for our future! We have a reason to be excited!
There is a place in our future that isn't only "better suited" to meet our needs. It's perfection. We have a place where we won't want to make changes and adjustments. We won't have to "make do" with what's in store for us. It will meet every expectation and supply every need we have!


I know that my heart doesn't long for heaven in the same way that it longs for our new house. I know that I am often caught up in the day to day here and forget about the promise I've been given of not just a better future but a perfect one! I also know that it's because my understanding of heaven isn't what it should be. I feel that if I could just hop on Zillow.com or Trulia.com and read the descriptions or see a few pictures of heaven I may be able to begin to get excited about my eternal homestead that God has prepared for me. The reality is that I do.
The Bible.
Once again, the best resource that I fail to use like I can and should.
But my lack of understanding and appreciation doesn't mean it's not there.
My goal is to gain a new understanding, a new ferver for my new eternal home.
I pray that you, along with me, can feel the excitement for what is to come and to be prepared for the move whenever it may come.
See you there!