“13 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, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 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
“Like Abraham, we too must live by faith and die by faith, receiving in part, but not yet receiving in full, what God has promised.
That’s what it means to live in the reality gap. We live in the real world of joys and sorrows, of successes and failures, of ups and downs. We live in a fallen world, where things and people fall apart. That’s reality – and reality is often painful, when those who suffer and die are our loved ones. But the Christian recognizes a reality beyond this reality, a world beyond this world, a story beyond history. He or she knows by faith that the painful reality that we see all around us will one day pass away. It will be replaced by a world in which God will dwell with his people, in which he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Rev. 21:3-4). Then we shall see him face-to-face and the reality gap will finally be gone. As Augustine puts it, ‘There we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise. Behold what shall be in the end shall not end.” In the meantime, we live, like Abraham, by faith – the faith of those who know that the light of the end of the road is the welcoming presence of Jesus, leading us to our new home.” Iaian Duguid, Living in the Gap between Promise and Reality: The Gospel according to Abraham.
