looking heavenward

"How lovely is your dwelling place,

O LORD Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out

for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may have her young—

a place near your altar,

O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house;

they are ever praising you. Selah
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it a place of springs;

the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,

till each appears before God in Zion.
Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty;

listen to me, O God of Jacob. Selah
Look upon our shield, O God;

look with favor on your anointed one.
Better is one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere;

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;

the LORD bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold

from those whose walk is blameless.
O LORD Almighty,

blessed is the man who trusts in you."

Psalm 84

*

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."

Hebrews 11:13-16