My mom and I were gone for a week to Northern California. We went to see my favorite niece, Sarah, graduate from the career college where she learned the primary skills of physical therapy. God has also blessed Sarah with a job (as of graduation she was one of only two in her class that are already employed).

Over the next several days we took advantage of being north to visit other family and friends. Before returning home we visited Vera Knight. Vera looked well but had gone to the hospital the day before. When I asked, “how are you?,” Vera said, “I’m on my way to heaven.”

While from a different perspective, Vera’s answer was similar to my thoughts on July 4th. Vera’s response was to the point. Mine borrowed generously from the Declaration of Independence.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are unalienable rights endowed by our Creator, not the government. Men, deriving their power from the consent of the governed do not hold these truths to be self-evident, especially that all men are created equal, but God does. He says we are all equally created sinners, a position much inferior to the lowest economic levels with potentially far greater consequences, eternal death. Believers in Jesus Christ are pilgrims on earth, yet possess dual citizenship. As the freedoms of this foreign land at times appear to be increasingly limited, the end result is that they only make us a little more homesick.

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

Knowing and believing the truth that followers of Jesus Christ are merely strangers, exiles, transients, pilgrims in this life is not easy. Consistently practicing that truth is far more difficult. Maybe we should ask the heroes of the faith cited in Hebrews 11. Would it be wrong to say we are thankful to God for the difficult reminders He sends our way until He calls us home?