Stranger Going Home

Devotional

Stranger Going Home

“For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” — Hebrews 13:14 (KJV)

The Christian hope of heaven does not require us to despise the life God has given us. We may love our families, rejoice in ordinary beauty, treasure our years, and still know that our final home is elsewhere. Scripture holds those truths together. Hebrews 13:14 describes the believer as someone who lives faithfully here while seeking the city to come.

The song, Stranger Going Home, begins with a traveler who has walked a long road. She has held little hands, endured storms, and given her heart away. These are not reasons to withdraw from the world. They are evidence of a life in which love has been received and given. Yet the familiar world can begin to feel temporary, especially as age brings the reality of loss and the limits of the body into clearer view.

The apostle Paul understood this tension. In Philippians 1:21–24 he could say, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” while also recognizing that remaining in this life meant fruitful labor for others. His hope of being with Christ did not cancel his responsibility to those still within his reach. Both desires belonged to a faithful Christian life.

That is the important distinction in the song’s refrain: “I’m not going to hurry time.” The singer does not ask to escape her present life. She acknowledges its goodness and the people who still need her. Looking forward to heaven is not the same as rejecting today. The days entrusted to us remain opportunities for gratitude, service, fellowship, and love.

Second Corinthians 5:1 gives the believer a striking image: “if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” The frailty of our present bodies is real, but it is not the end of the story. The Christian’s confidence rests not in the strength of the body, or in a particular feeling of readiness, but in the promise of God through Jesus Christ.

The song imagines a home where sickness and pain no longer wait around the corner. Revelation 21:4 grounds that longing in God’s promise: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.” This is not merely a wish that circumstances might improve. It is part of the promised renewal God will accomplish.

The line about loved ones being known and welcomed expresses a tender human longing. Scripture assures believers of life with Christ and of the gathering of His people (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). It does not describe every detail of recognition or reunion, so we need not pretend to know precisely how those moments will unfold. Our certainty belongs to the Lord and His promises; our imaginative language gives voice to the comfort we anticipate.

Jesus made the foundation of that hope personal when He told His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2), and promised, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3). Heaven is not simply the absence of suffering. Its deepest blessing is being with Christ. He is the reason the believer can speak of going home.

That assurance is inseparable from the Gospel. Eternal life is not earned by reaching old age, enduring pain, or doing enough good things. Ephesians 2:8–9 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Our hope rests in Christ’s saving work, not in the length or merit of our journey.

The bridge turns our attention back to the present: “So I will stay while I am here, and love what’s placed in reach.” This is where hope becomes practical. A believer can anticipate eternity without neglecting today’s calling. Galatians 6:10 instructs us, “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.” The opportunity before us may be a conversation, a hand to hold, a song to write, or a kindness that will never be noticed publicly.

The singer’s gratitude is equally important. The life behind her has contained beauty and sorrow, affection and loss. Psalm 90:12 asks God to teach us to number our days, “that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Wisdom neither clings desperately to time nor treats it carelessly. It receives each day as a stewardship.

The older traveler therefore stands between two truths: there is still love to give here, and there is a promised home with Christ ahead. Neither truth erases the other. The assurance of the destination can make the remaining journey more purposeful, not less.

The song, Stranger Going Home, does not end with a demand that the journey be shortened. It ends with quiet anticipation. The traveler is grateful for the road already walked, willing to continue while God gives her days, and confident that this present world is not her final dwelling place.

We can cherish the life God has placed in our hands and look forward, without fear or haste, to the home Christ has promised.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for the years You have given me, for the people I have loved, and for the beauty You have placed along my road. When I feel the ache of loss or the weakness of this earthly body, anchor my hope in the promises of Your Word and the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Keep me faithful to the people and opportunities still before me. Teach me to number my days wisely, to love generously, and to serve gladly. And when my earthly journey is complete, let my confidence rest entirely in Christ, who has promised to receive His own. In Jesus’ name, Amen.