During the Cold War, I was serving in the US Army in Augsburg, Germany. I lived off base and had to take a commuter bus into downtown Augsburg, walk three blocks to the train station, and there catch the strassenbahn (streetcar) to Flak Kaserne, where I worked, six days a week. I learned to speak just enough German to tell conductors and drivers where I was going. I had to wear my olive drab Army Fatigues and combat boots and stood out like a sore thumb. Although English was a second language to most Germans, no one let on that they could speak it. I passed old veterans with limbs missing who looked very unfriendly toward me. I felt like I didn’t fit in. I felt like an outsider and that I was not really welcome. I felt like my presence there was a necessary evil to the citizens. I wanted to go home.

But, that’s the way it is in this world for me. I live here and work here, but I really don’t belong in this place. The older I get, the more I don’t like this world and what it offers. There are too many problems. People get offended too easily. People hold grudges. Everything breaks down in this world.

I want to go home where there is more security and no one gets sick and dies. I want the peace that heaven offers. This world is not my home, I’m just passing through. You see, my citizenship is in heaven, and I long to go home.

Tags: heaven