The Second Truck

Photo courtesy of saveologymoving.com

My family and I recently moved from Florida to Maryland for a permanent change of station with the Navy.  The packers arrived as scheduled and the loaders and the truck showed up on schedule a few days later.  However...there was a small problem.  The truck that arrived was only partially empty.  It turns out that our pre-move survey was not performed properly and the moving company had underestimated the amount of truck space our household goods would need.  As a result, two-thirds of our household items were packed up and loaded on a truck bound for Maryland...and the rest was packed up and delivered to a storage unit to await a truck headed north at a later date.

So, in Maryland, when the first truck arrived, we worked hard to unpack the initial onslaught of boxes and set up our home as much as we could with what we had.  We unpacked most of the kitchen...to find that we were without a single pot and pan...or a toaster (a big deal for the kids!).  We set up each of the beds...only to discover that we were without sheets!  All of our framed pictures arrived...but not the tool chest that housed all the picture hangers and the hammer.  Fortunately, we had all of our furniture, living room items, television, clothes, and most of the kids' toys.  And since we were moving back to a familiar area, we had friends and neighbors from whom we could borrow needed items (like a pan or two!).  But it just wasn't...HOME.  Oh, how I wanted my front door flower arrangement and plant stand to just make our place more inviting! 

As the days wore on and became a week...then two...we became more and more eager for the second truck to arrive.   Each day we woke up excited--would THIS be the day the truck arrived to bring us our personal computer, bicycles, and craft supplies?  And while we COULD have bought a new set of pots and pans or more sets of sheets and been reimbursed by the moving company as part of our inconvenience claim ("necessity" items such as these would be covered), we didn't WANT to buy these items because we knew we were pleased with the quality of the items we already owned...and we had confidence knowing that they WOULD be arriving...soon!

So, I remember the morning we received the call that YES the truck would be coming that day!  I was sitting at my vanity counter, putting on my makeup, and the thought struck me with a quiet conviction, that only the Holy Spirit can whisper into your heart.  Am I THIS excited about CHRIST'S second coming?  Do I hold off making personal expenditures because I know they are not needed in light of His return?  Do I realize that this is NOT my long-term way of life...but understand that real life and living is to come?  Do I know that this is NOT my home...but only a place to pass through as I await the home Christ is preparing for me in Paradise?  It was a sobering and necessary reality check for me in a lot of ways.  In some ways, I was convicted to change.  In others, I was pleased with some of the things we have invested in for Christ's kingdom to come!

How about you, friend?  Do you live life with your eyes set above, eagerly awaiting Christ's second return to take you to your true home?  Or do you settle for the earthly comforts of today, even though better things are to come...perhaps sooner than you might realize?  I know I need to constantly reorient my priorities in light of this truth!

 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."    --John 14:3