In 1947, right after the second world war, my dad was sent to Rome, Italy, to be Deputy Director of the Marshall plan – a plan to reconstruct the destroyed vital infrastructure of Europe. Because he and my mom were so busy in his new job, I was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland.
Although this may seem like a fabulous opportunity, as a seven-year-old boy I was devastated. I was away from my family, I had no friends, I had no toys, I only had one book (The Littlest Cowboy) and I was desperately lonely. There was no way I could contact my family except by letter. I wasn’t even in my own country. To add to it, they gave me three days (!) to learn French and after that they did not speak a word of English or even acknowledge that they understood it. Furthermore they took away my clothes and gave me itchy woolen knickers. I didn’t even have familiar food because they made me eat things like blood sausage and stinky soft cheese.
I have recently realized that this is a perfect analogy of our situation here on earth.
As Christians, this is not our country. As the Bible says we are aliens. We can only contact our Father by prayer and by reading his letters to us. They speak a different language here on earth such as rape, killing, stealing, money, etc. rather than the real language of love, grace, empathy and hope. Even our clothes are different; someday we will wear robes of white. Here we are surrounded by people that consume pornography and violence, but someday we will eat Manna. Now we are desperately lonely for Jesus and all we can do is hope and wait for His return – just like I hoped and waited for my parents return in Switzerland.
Come Lord Jesus! Come soon.
Photo Attribution: Ronnie Schmutz – unsplash.com