- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The better country is found by those who leave the lesser one, but not by those who abandon the idea of a country altogether. The better country is still a country. You don't improve upon your place by desiring no place.
Hebrews 11:13-16
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
The way home lies ahead not behind.
The better country is a country and the Heavenly city is a city.
Philippians 3:13-14
This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The kind of place we want to go is not the place we could go back to. It can only be produced by going forward. In so doing, our adventures will one day lead us to a new country that has all the warmth and welcome of a familiar home combined with all the wonder and thrill of a new and unfamiliar pleasure.
Luke 18:28-30
Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.
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