A pilgrim is someone who travels to a place where they long to be. Following a kind of calling, they might journey to a sacred place where they can worship. Or they might move around, ever seeking a place to call home. Followers of Jesus are pilgrims who are called to live for God as they travel through life on their way to their eternal home.

The Bible tells about a pilgrim named Abraham, who followed God’s call to go and live in a land that God would show him. God led Abraham to the land of Canaan, where he pitched his tent and worshiped the Lord (Genesis 12:1-8). Yet Abraham lived as a stranger and foreigner in that land. His security was not in a plot of land but in the plan of God. He envisioned an eternal city, to which he spent a lifetime traveling. Abraham lived as a pilgrim rather than as a permanent settler. Walking by faith rather than by sight, he modeled what it means to follow the Lord.

A pilgrim is different from a settler. Pilgrims never feel totally comfortable with the values and lifestyles of their surrounding cultures. They are careful not to drive their stakes too deeply into the ground. They live with a holy detachment, careful not to hold on to places or things so tightly that they can’t go on without them. Pilgrims also regularly long for home. In other words, they live with eternal aspirations, not simply earthly ones.