Living in tents

We don’t preach enough about eternity as Christians in Africa. It is a bit ironic as the whole point of Jesus’ coming and the cross was to restore this eternal life.  This topic is often confined to brief funeral exhortations, after which we shake it off and move on with our lives.

Granted, life on the continent can be challenging. Every minute is packed with its own battle for food, shelter and survival for ourselves and our families. In this warfare survival mode, it is difficult to think or pray about much else. So, we prefer breakthrough services and ‘this-situation-must-change’ vigils.

Tokens of a greater hope

However, our comfort and strength for this life to face those battles lies in the eternal promises of God that we often set aside.

Consider Abraham and Sarah. They waited on the word from God of a land that he would show them. They also waited for an impossible birth of a son in their old age; and indeed, God did the impossible. But Hebrews 11 lets us know that those were not the real promises that motivated their faith. They were only tokens of a greater eternal hope.

“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

The land and Isaac, their son, were not real rewards. As Hebrews 11:13 says, Abraham and Sarah did not receive the things promised. What?!  So, what was really promised?

Greeting hope from afar

“But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:16; ESV).

They were looking up to the new creation, an eternal city whose builder and designer is God. A city where there will be no darkness, not because there is 24/7 electricity, or you are rich enough to buy fuel and a huge generator; but because God himself will be the light. A place of no tears or weeping; a place of eternal praise to God. A country that is the real home of all who have put their faith in God and greeted this eternal hope from afar.

Faith does not cling to this earth

This is what faith is. Faith looks beyond situational miracles and breakthroughs. It looks ahead to all that God is, his greatness and splendour, and the eternal promises he has in store for us. Faith constantly acknowledges that this earth is not our own. It knows that we are living in tents as in a desert, waiting patiently for our country.

We have somehow ended up spending so much time caring for our temporary tents rather than looking up to the new creation that we are part of.  However, faith does not cling to the successes and failures of this life. Rather, faith looks up, groaning daily for our citizenship of heaven to be totally revealed.

For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
Hebrews 11:14

I wrote this article for Our Daily Bread Africa and it originally published in April 2022.