“…From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.” (Gen. 4:12 NLV)
The phrase “homeless wanderer” interrupted each of my thoughts, almost as if the words were whispered to me. I looked around my narrow, one-person tent, and took inventory of my belongings on the race. I repositioned myself beside my two backpacks, which took up half my tent, and tried to fall asleep.
Up until that point, I hadn’t been bothered by giving up things. I have been content in a bed or a sleeping bag; a hostel or a tent. That night, though, it felt like I had very few things. Maybe it was just five months of traveling from country to country taking its toll, but I felt disconnected from the world. I was unsure of how I will function back home after this trip; if Florida will even be my home after this. I felt like a homeless wanderer on the earth.
The next morning, I thought of the Israelites during their journey through the wilderness. In Numbers 9, the word describes the pillar of fire which the Israelites followed. It moved from place to place, sometimes stopping for a few days, sometimes stopping for only a night. The Israelites were able to see physical evidence of the glory of God as He personally guided them to the promised land. God provided his people with food which had never before existed, manna. The manna lasted only a day, teaching the Israelites to depend on God alone, and not on stored up resources. With all of these miraculous signs and wonders, the Israelites were still unthankful many times throughout their journey in the wilderness.
I realized how unthankful it was for me to be upset because I feel like I have little. I am blessed because I have just enough to remember that I need to depend on God. The Israelites couldn’t save their food for the next day. They had to trust that God would bring them food each day so that they would survive. At this point, I am not in a place where I have to worry about my basic needs like food, water and shelter. For the first time, though, I cannot save my resources for tomorrow, I have to trust that God will provide for me. I don’t have enough for my next financial deadline on the race, but I get to see physical evidence of God’s glory as he provides for me to be where He needs me. I am in a place where I need him to provide for me.
Later that day, we set up for the Bible lesson for the kids in the village. We created a scavenger hunt around the community center. Kate taught that day on the parable of the hidden treasure.
The children in the village reading a hint in the scavenger hunt.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. “ Matthew 13:44
From an outsiders perspective, the man in the story looks impulsive and foolish. He gives up everything he owns and spends all the money he has on an empty field. But he knows about the treasure that others cannot see. As Christians, we are also living for an unseen treasure.
In Moses’s story, he explains to his brother-in-law one day that the Israelites are on the way to the promised land, and he should join them in the journey, but his brother-in-law refuses to go with him (Numbers 10:29-31). He has too much to leave behind–family, land, property. He isn’t willing to risk what he knows to be true for something that cannot yet be seen. To him, Moses and the rest of the Israelites resemble homeless wanderers.
At the end of Moses’s life, God once again leads him to a mountaintop (Deuteronomy 34). Because of the Israelites’ sin, he is unable to enter the promised land. Because of God’s goodness, though, Moses’s sight is still clear, even at the age of 120. In his last hours, he is able to see the promised land across the Jordan River.
The same is true with us. We are not likely to experience our promised home in heaven while here on earth, but as Paul puts it, we can partially see our future inheritance as in a cloudy mirror (I Cor. 13). We can make out reflections of heaven throughout God’s creation, and most clearly throughout the Body of Christ. We can catch glimpses of our home as we see God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.
Faith is a gift of God. One person may see a miracle and never have faith, and another might never see a miracle in their life and still have faith. Faith is a good and perfect gift which comes down to us from God our father (James 1:17). Faith is what gives us confidence in the unseen treasure we hold on to (I Corinthians 11:1); the promised land that is on the other side of the Jordan; the home we are following God’s glory towards, when the rest of the world sees us as homeless wanderers.
