Was it even open?
The handle turned beneath my eager fingertips. It was!
I hadn’t been to the library in months. I wasn’t even sure why I’d come today except that I wasn’t ready to leave town and go home. I wanted to be alone. It was one of those days: interruptions at every turn; repeating everything I said at least once; everyone expecting me to be a team player when I just wanted to grab my journal and disappear until next week.
That’s why the library was such a good place to vanish for an hour. Here, the shelves were lined with stories of people who had lived and breathed life’s struggle. They had faced the same problems I faced today. I felt a camaraderie with these characters beyond the lettered spines on floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
“Are you looking for something in particular?” A librarian approached me, even as I was still inhaling the tawny scent of explored pages.
She seemed satisfied when I said, “No, just looking.”
I fought the urge to just stand and soak in the stories. I was in the fiction section anyway, so I slipped over to the next aisle. Art. Music. History. Sewing. Biography. Religion. I pulled books off the shelf to page through them before adding them to the growing stack tucked in the crook of my elbow.
There were books for sale- 5 cents each- that town citizens had donated to the library. I browsed that section and found a book about heaven.
Heaven.
I wove through the displays of cheap romance novels and heaved my stack onto the check-out counter.
“Do you need a sack?”
“No. Thanks. I have one in the car.”
“Can I get the door for you?”
“Thanks. I got it.”
I loaded my car and was on the way home–beside the elementary school and the reduced speed limit signs–when I remembered the book about heaven.
I had only forked over the nickel to give the book away. I didn’t read books about heaven. The incessant chatter of an afternoon radio show interrupted my emerging thoughts. I hit the power button.
“Why?” I said aloud. “Why don’t I think about heaven?”
Was it that I was comfortable on earth? Hardly! I was always yearning for something.
“But what is it?” Was I yearning for heaven or the “next big thing” in my life wherein lie coveted fulfillment? Couldn’t I pretend that it was all just a subconscious longing to be with God?
Or was it more like a choice of where I based my citizenship?
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seem them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.”
(Heb. 11:13-14)
On the drive home, the dusty wind and thick, angry raindrops reminded me of life’s trials. But somehow, with the hope of heaven, trials didn’t look so scary.
My Thoughts From Afar | 