All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
Hebrews 11:13 (NIV)
What They Called Themselves
The key shop is four feet of counter and a machine that throws sparks. The man behind it can pick the right blank off the board without looking, because he knows the locks in this town by the shape of the key.
The people in Hebrews had been promised a country. They saw it and welcomed it from a distance, the way a person is greeted while still too far off to reach, and they were still living by faith on the day they died. And they admitted something about themselves while they were at it: that they were “foreigners and strangers on earth.”
These people said where they actually stood, with the promise still out ahead of them and nothing of it in their hands. People who say such things are looking for a country of their own. God had a city prepared for them, and he isn’t ashamed to be called their God.
I like these people better for what they called themselves than for what they were promised.
When someone asks you where you’re from, is the answer a place you’ve arrived at, or a place you’re still waiting on? Most people give the first answer because it’s shorter, and because the second one sounds like a complaint when it’s said at a party. The men and women in that chapter gave the second answer, and they gave it without ever receiving the things they had been promised.
The key he’s finishing came off a number a customer read to him from a paper tag, so the lock it belongs to is one he has never touched. He files the burr away with two strokes and drops the key in a small envelope, and the door it opens is one he’ll never stand in front of.
A Prayer to Remember
I’ve spent years describing my life as further along than it is, and the habit is good enough now that it fools me. Teach me to say where I actually am, and to say it to you before I say it to anyone else. When I’ve said it, don’t let me hear it as bad news.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
