Expectations

Imagine a couple making their honeymoon trip. They drive for hours, arrive at the hotel that they had reserved months before. They remember the pictures of a large room with a romantic atmosphere. What they find instead is a tiny room with no windows, no flowers, a small restroom and worst of all, no bed. There was only an uncomfortable fold out couch. It was not exactly what they had hoped for.

The Unexpected

They settled into the room, but of course they griped to the manager the next morning. “Well,” he replied, “did you open the door in your room?” They went back to the room opening the inner door to find a spacious, well-lit room with a fruit basket, flowers, chocolate, and a huge bed and a large bathroom! They thought the door opened to a closet the whole time!

Not What We Hope For

Don’t we often do the same? This space we have on earth is not always what we hoped it would be. There is sickness, pain, danger, old age … we groan for something better! The fact is, we were made for something better! We do the best with what we have, but there is only so much you can do. The furniture gets old, the paint fades. We want something better, something bigger, something lasting.

Better Than We Hope For

Paul writes in 2 Cor. 5:1-2about living in a “tent”. I wonder how long we would put up with that in real life? And yet many are satisfied with life in a “tent”, when God has promised us something so much greater! “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, and eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling… “Are you happy with the tent, or longing for something better?