Just Visiting

I have found I am traveling down a road I do not recognize. This place I’m in is not my home, if it were I would know, but my heart tells me I have not yet arrived. There are sites I see that amaze me, yet I was never meant to stay and neither were you. We are just fellow sojourners only passing through and we won’t be staying long. I have chosen the narrow path. It is up hill the whole way with snares and stumbling blocks, and unsteady rocks all along the way. I am told not to worry about what I encounter along this path because this life is but a breath, and I am just visiting. I have fallen so many times that I have lost count. I’ve slid backwards and skinned my hands and knees in the places I’ve been forced to crawl. My heart has had to be broken in order that He might mold it into something with less pride and more humility. There have been fires I had to walk through, and will have too again, He tells me for my refinement, to reflect His beauty and love. There are still moments I cry out to be carried because I have no strength left, as I lie there waiting to be lifted up and cradled, and He is always faithful to pick me up. As I view the road I’ve chose to walk, I see that it is the hardest, and is not one I can travel alone. This life was never meant to be journeyed solely on your own. I will never finish in first place at the roads end in this world’s race; really last place is my only goal. This place that is so far from home comes with a companion if you so chose, but He only joins you on the narrow path. While I can’t see what lies ahead, I’ve been guaranteed that at end of this journey is eternal freedom that right now my mind can not grasp. I will never be satisfied by what this life offers me because I was destined for so much more. For what is this life compared to eternity? I can enjoy the fragrance of the flowers along the way, as long as I am a fragrance of sweet mercy to those whom I pass. I can take pleasure in the melodies that I hear and lift my voice in song, as long as my melody speaks of His grace that washes away all wrong. My eyes can absorb all the beauty that surrounds me, as long as my eyes mirror the beauty of His love that knows no bounds. The sweetness of fruit lingers on my lips; yet let my lips speak of the sweetness of deliverance. My hunger can be sated with food aplenty; yet my soul can only be sustained with the Bread of Life. My thirst can be quenched with any drink; yet for my spirit to never thirst again I must drink deeply the Living Water. The longer I travel, the more I see that the Bread of Life and Living Water are the only things that satisfy, the only things I need. I have looked in so many different places and tried so many different ways, yet nothing fills the true desires of my heart; only He is the One that can quench all that I yearn for. In the darkest valleys, it is only the light of salvation that guides me each step of the way. In the cold that goes so deep, it’s only the warmth of grace that is my faithful embrace. My heart meditates on Your promises, for I can’t begin to comprehend forever in Heaven for who can begin to conceive You in all Your glory and holiness? Eternity with You resonates in my very essence, so I will keep putting one foot in front of the other, knowing each step I take is bringing me closer to You. I will keep my eyes turned up, eagerly awaiting to see You coming for me, beholding You face to face. My ears will be open to hear Your call, that I might fly from this path and meet You in the air. There were visitors before me, and now my fellow sojourners, the ones that will join me along the way, and the ones that will come after, yet the only one that matters is the One we travel with along the way. So to the world; know while I ‘m here now, it’s only temporary, for I am just visiting and longing just to go home.

Melissa Fitzwilliam