Photo and Commentary ©2023 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, April 1, 2023
A couple of days ago, on my post-breakfast morning walk, I spotted this cheerful sight. This little trailer’s wheels have been firmly “chocked” from front and back, and scissor-jacks have been carefully cranked (no doubt using spirit-levels built into the frame) to give a sense of stability.
Yet at any moment, a pickup can be backed up to the hitch, and those jacks could be removed, and the trailer can be towed away.
Christians down through the centuries have understood that anchored-but-transient should be the stance of faith. Listen to the lyric of these gospel songs, like this one from 1895:
I’m but a stranger here,
Heaven is my home;
Earth is a desert drear;
Heaven is my home:
Danger and sorrow stand
Round me on every hand;
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.
What though the tempest rage,
Heaven is my home;
Short is my pilgrimage,
Heaven is my home:
And time’s wild wintry blast
Soon shall be overpast;
I shall reach home at last,
Heaven is my home.
There at my Saviour’s side,
Heaven is my home;
I shall be glorified,
Heaven is my home.
There are the good and blest,
Those I love most and best;
And there I too shall rest,
Heaven is my home.
Therefore I murmur not,
Heaven is my home;
Whate’er my earthly lot,
Heaven is my home:
And I shall surely stand
There at my Lord’s right hand:
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.
Or this one, from the same era:
I’m a pilgrim, and I’m a stranger,
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night;
Do not detain me, for I am going
To where the fountains are ever flowing:
I’m a pilgrim, and I’m a stranger,
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night.
There the glory is ever shining;
O my longing heart, my longing heart is there:
Here in this country so dark and dreary
I long have wandered, forlorn and weary:
I’m a pilgrim, and I’m a stranger,
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night.
Of the city to which I’m going
My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the light;
There is no sorrow, nor any sighing,
Nor any sinning, nor any dying:
Of the city to which I’m going
My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the light.