Homing Pigeons

When I was a boy, for the magnificent sum of one English penny, one could purchase a platform ticket and go onto the platform of the local railway station.  Those were the days of steam engines, and because our town was on the main line from the city of London to the country of Wales, it was a very busy station.  It was a favorite pastime to purchase a platform ticket and spend an enjoyable morning, in the summer holidays, watching the trains.  They would come roaring in to the accompaniment of clouds of steam, blowing of whistles, banging of doors, and the rush of passengers.  Then, off it went again with loud huffs and puffs of the mighty engine up front.

One day, I was idling away such a morning when I found myself down the far end of the main platform.  There I came across some wicker baskets filled with doves and pigeons.  A friendly porter saw me eyeing them.

“Those are homing doves and pigeons, son,” he said.  “We are loading them on trains going to different parts of the country.  Sometime next week, they will all have arrived at their different destinations.  At precisely the same time, they will all be released, and no matter where they are, they will head straight for home.  It’s a kind of race, you see.  The one that gets home first will be the winner.”

That’s it, of course!  The Holy Spirit is the dove of God.  He has a strong homing instinct.  When He is received into a human heart, He brings that homing instinct with Him.  He heads us toward Home!  At the time of the Rapture, He will simply pick us all up, living or dead, and take us there to the accompanying shout, trump, and voice.

John Phillips, Exploring 1 & 2 Thessalonians (Grand Rapid: Kregel, 2005), 125-126.