Faithful

"The world was not worthy of them..."

Such a statement. It has rung in my ears and rattled around in my heart. Who was the world not worthy of? The faithful. Sinners and prophets, kings and prostitutes, schemers and patriarchs, all faithful to the promise. Human every one, just like me, just like you. But faithful.

Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets...who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength... Women received back their dead...They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. (Hebrews 11:32-38)

They lived an amazing faith. But what they saw on earth wasn't the point. It was what they didn't see, but still believed.

"These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect... Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire."" (Hebrews 11:939-40,12:28-29)

Some of us spend our whole lives waiting; the answer lies beyond the veil. This cursed world can't contain the ultimate, perfect, final Answer. For that we need a new world. All homesickness, brokenness, sorrow, loss, death, pain, fear, loneliness, want is met and filled forever, there, not here. May we live so full of belief in the precious One who made the promise that this old broken world would not be worthy of such a faith that spills out of us!

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24)