“I’m kind of homesick for a country to which I’ve never been before.”
—from “Sweet Beulah Land”, by Squire Parsons
“But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” —Hebrews 11:16 (ESV).”
Dear Cobham Park Church Family,
Our region reminds me of an English travel itinerary. We have Midlothian, Stafford, Essex, Gloucester, Middlesex, Richmond, Lancaster, Northumberland, Westmoreland, and many more place-names from the United Kingdom. Why? Centuries ago, English settlers came to this country looking for a better life. But they obviously felt a bit homesick. So, when they settled in the Virginia wilderness, they often named places after the homes they’d left across the ocean. This is how our church got its unique name! I’ll quote Rusty Brown (our de facto resident historian):
“Cobham Park Baptist Church was founded in 1885 in that area of Richmond County known as Cobham Park Neck, a peninsula bordered by two creeks and the Rappahannock River, bisected by Wellford’s Wharf Road. In 1650, James Williamson, an Englishman, was given that tract of land over 1,800 acres…(He) named his plantation Cobham Park after his ancestral home Cobham Hall and its grounds (called) Cobham Park in Kent, England.”
We Christians also experience something like homesickness: the nagging desire for a place where things will finally be made right—a true home that can never be taken from us. Cindy wrote about this kind of homesickness in last October’s Praise Page. Nothing in this world can cure it. We often mistakenly think that it must be the past that we miss. But we can’t go back in time, and our futile attempts to conjure the past only end up making us more miserable. No, this homesickness can’t be cured in the rearview mirror. We are being drawn to a better country in future glory! Let hope for God’s new creation give much-needed perspective in this scary, sin-sick world. You can’t lose your real home; it’s just ahead in Jesus’ arms!
In His Love,
Pastor Keith
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