Where I came from

I've heard countless celebrities say, "I never forget where I came from." Mind you, they say this as they sit in their four million dollar mansion on the side of a hill in LA with huge glass windows looking out over the Hollywood sign. The sentiment is good but it feels awfully jaded coming from the lap of luxury. With my sour view of such a claim it is ironic that today that very sentence kept coming to my mind.
From my seat in a casual cafe, far from the Hollywood Hills, I, too, began to reflect on where I came from. And I don't just mean just my home city, state and zip code. I don't even mean my childhood home or the smell of freshly baked cookies that used to emanate through our house in the fall. I don't mean the high school I graduated from or my family's business that shaped my understanding of hard work and dedication. When I say, "where I came from," I mean where I really came from, where I was known before I was born and where I will one day return: my heavenly home.
In this life, on this earth, I don't know what will become of me. Maybe I will wake up one day and find that I am famous (that's a long shot - and a shot I'm not even sure I'd enjoy). Or maybe I'll wake up one day and find that I'm a housewife with three kids and a minivan (a shot I can see being much more agreeable to my sensibilities and desires). Or maybe my future will look a lot like my present, characterized by an ongoing tug-of-war between health and sickness, vitality and weakness. I don't know where precisely I'm going in this life but I know where I came from and I know that one day that is where I will return.
What comes next in my life may be blissful or it may challenge my faith and tax my spirit. Either way, I can rest in the knowledge of where I came from. The place I came from is perfect. God in His love created me and designed me in His image. He laid out for me a path to journey through this life, a mystery that is being unfolded daily. He knew there would be challenges and struggles, but He put encouragement and encouragers along my path. It all began at the place I came from, long before I was even a blip on a sonogram machine or a baby in a cradle. God knew who I would be and He planned for me in advance.
Now I am here on His journey. This path isn't mine. It is His. It is a path that is lived out on earth but is leading back to Heaven, circling back to my first and forever home. Knowing where I came from makes all the difference in how I live. I can walk along this path knowing that it is set out for me and that I am safe and secure even when I feel anxious and vulnerable. My feet are secure because my future is locked in, it is written in God's book of life.
Because I know where I came from I can live with the joy of knowing, ultimately, where I'm going. I may not know what tomorrow will bring. I may not know what my earthly future holds but I know where I'm going to end. I know that I'm going back to the perfect home that I came from. I have a bed there and a room that's all mine. I can live with joy and anticipation because I'm headed home, back where I belong.