More than 400,000 children in the United States are waiting for a permanent home.

They reside in foster care families, hoping that some day they will have a permanent and safe place where they will be cared for and loved.

We, too, are a bit like foster children.

Before knowing Jesus, we were alone, often abused and abusive to others. We suffered greatly. But then, at some point we turned ourselves over to Jesus. We gave up trying to live right on our own and God claimed us. He adopted us for His own.

God has chosen us. But as we wait to move into His house, our bodies age. We stumble when tempted. This fallen world causes us pain.

Yet the apostle Paul says, “Have hope!”

We can look ahead to the permanent safe place God is preparing for us — a place where we will be cared for and loved, free from heartbreaks and physical pain, from burdens, from temptations, from sadness of any sort.

Life here is only a shadow, a dim view, of what is ahead. Heaven is our permanent home!