Any travel plans in the near future? I hope your passport is up to date if you’re planning on leaving the country. The US State Department is warning it may take up to eighteen weeks to renew or get a new passport. Staying stateside? Well, national parks are hitting capacities and the travel industry in general is reporting record-breaking numbers in all travel related interests.

Why the surge in travel? Covid, you say? Nah, I don’t buy it. I understand Covid kept us from doing much of what we normally like to do, but God gave humans an innate and insatiable desire to discover more of God’s person and work. It’s part of being created in the image of God.

C.S. Lewis said it well; “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

We were made for another world. We were never to live on a planet where ‘moth and rust decay’ and disease and death steal the headlines. God gave us a perfect world to unpack and explore for His glory and our blessing. A gift unopened is no gift, is it? We were given dominion in a world where the desire to aspire would have led to great discoveries, inventions and advancements in culture, arts and sciences. Life would have been oh so grand

Tragically, temptation twisted a perfectly godly desire to discover into   disobedience. Why do you think a piece of fruit seemed so desirable?

Disobedience led to a world where gratitude became greed, mercy became weakness and contentment became craving. Thankfully, God set the cosmos aright through Jesus. All is well.

The world we were intended to inhabit is being recreated as you read this. There is a new world, just a heartbeat away, being prepared for all of us who are in Christ Jesus. When we close our eyes for the final time in this life, we will open them in a world where the canyons will be grander and the koalas will be cuter. The vistas and sunsets we enjoy today serve only to whet our appetite for all that is to come.

We weren’t made to settle for less than the best. For Christ followers, our travels, explorations and discoveries are God-given opportunities to share the news of a better life ahead by making Jesus real ONE life at a time.

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” - the things God has prepared for those who love him - these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:6-10