We hope that one day we will dwell in the house of the Lord! This is the promise and this is our goal.
We can also consider that the world we live in, the place that God created is also God's house. The first place we encounter God is in our own homes with our families, the first church where God can be known and worshiped; the place where faith is learned.
The earth with its beauty and strength is also where we encounter God. The problem is we don't always recognize him, and until we recognize this as coming from God, we don't praise him.
I love the image of a pilgrimage. There was once a minister at the church where I worshiped who talked about how we can go through life as a pilgrim or a tourist.
He defined a tourist is one who goes through life wanting everything to be just as they want and like it. A pilgrim enters into the circumstances of the life in which one finds himself.
A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey usually to a holy place. This can be a physical place as to Jerusalem for the Jews, Mecca for the Muslims and various shrines such as Lourdes or Fatima for Christians.
However, it can also be a spiritual journey, a search for holiness. The pilgrim is searching for the presence of God in his or her life in order that his presence will overflow into the fullness of his presence in Heaven.
The pilgrim looks outward and works to bring the Kingdom present even in this Weeping valley. The tourist is only thinking of his own needs and comfort without any thought to the needs of the people he meets or the world he is supposed to care for.
The pilgrim finds joy; the tourist sometimes only finds disappointment.
We have a choice, are we pilgrims or tourists?
