Utopia
For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 Corinthians 5:1 NASB
Not made with hands– We’re just too much a part of our expected reality to see much beyond the edge. We struggle and fight. We whine (as my wife is often quick to point out to me). We wrestle for control. We want the world to mold itself to our interests. This, of course, is precisely the function of the yetzer ha’ra, a function that is absolutely essential to self-existence. Hardwired for conflict, we react against the world from the moment of first breath. And it’s a good thing we do. Otherwise nothing would ever change and we would not discover who we are or who we are intended to be. “In a way, despair is at the centre of things—if only we are prepared to go through it. We must prepare for a period when God is not there for us and we must be aware of not trying to substitute a false God. . . The day when God is absent, when He is silent—that is the beginning of prayer.”[1]
But there’s something else gnawing away at us.
“And there is that time when there is a longing in the heart for God Himself, not for His gifts, but for God Himself. There is a sadness in the eyes that grows deep and looks to infinity, often in the midst of fulfillment and happiness. There is a longing for home, but a home that has no geography, home where there is love, depth and life.”[2]
Maybe you’ve glimpsed this “other” place, the home that is not made with hands. Maybe you’ve felt it drawing you. Perhaps you’re not quite willing yet to let it take you, but you know it’s there. Utopia. Literally, Greek for “no place.” A proper name for what we long to have because it is no place to be found where we can look.
Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.” (John 8:21)
But we want to, don’t we? Somewhere deep inside us, down where the conflicts and turmoil no longer matters, there is this pregnant desire to be home. We may be out riding fences, busy with life’s constant trivial obligations. But the feeling doesn’t go away. Somewhere else, in utopia, there is a place for us not made with hands.
It’s just such a long road to get there.
Topical Index: not made with hands, home, utopia, 2 Corinthians 5:1, John 8:21
Amen. Come, Y’shua HaMashiach. Come.
“A home with no geography.” People say home is where the heart is: Skip says the heart is where our home is. I think we come with our hearts magnetized to home. We are aliens in our aging bodies that, because of sin, are so resistant to our will. We were created to be temples of the living God: now look at us. We were created to be filled with “all power from on high”, but we keep throwing the plug away: keep resisting the Spirit of that living God: keep falling for the lie that we can only have power if we wrest the ‘controls’ for ourselves, but the moment we shut Him out – alienate Him – we become aliens to ourselves, too.
I think our hearts were made with two keys: both owners of those keys have to be present at the same time to unlock the safe and start the engine. I find that I treat myself exactly how I treat Him. Every time I do that, I am floored. It’s like I am in an eternal eclipse: my moon is always positioned wherever His sun is. I cannot aim at myself and miss Him, and vice versa. I was created in perpetual alignment with heaven. When I sin against heaven, I sin against myself. When I shut Him out, I am locked out, too. I keep falling for this stuff!
I was a stranger to myself yesterday. I locked us both out, again. Today, I have repented. Today, we are back home.
“And there is that time when there is a longing in the heart for God Himself, not for His gifts, but for God Himself.”
– this has been my song now for many days
I’m finding this to be true also for myself. Seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness as a priority. Seeking Him. Becoming more and more a love affair of the heart. Knowing Him. Everything‘s in relationship to Him.
Please pray for my family as we all struggle with the loss of my 21-year-old great nephew to a drug overdose. Bringing out the best and the worst in people. Certainly magnifying the inability of so many to feel their feelings. And the behaviors resultant from this inability.
As believers, we’re promised this “house not made
with hands.” This promise has, by faith, a living pre-existence
that resides in our hearts.
Yeshua told us: “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that
were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to
prepare a place for you?” Jn 14:2
Yeshua than went further to mention His second coming and
to reinforce that we already know in our hearts what and where
He’s talking about. Yeshua continues in Jn 14:3-4 “And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be
with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way
to the place where I am going.”
So we keep the faith . . . we’re on the way!