I believe that we live in an alien world. For scripture clearly states that this earth we live on is Satan's domain.
"We know that we are children of God and that all the rest of the world around us is under Satan's power and control."
1 John 5: 19
And Jesus prayed for God's protection for us in this hostile environment where we must live out our physical lives.
"The world hates them because they don't fit in, just as I don't. I'm not asking You to take them out of the world but to keep them safe from Satan's power."
John 17: 15, 16
So we definitely live in the land of the enemy. It is an indication of our spiritual progress if we are becoming more and more aware that we are strangers here. For our life is now hidden with Christ in God. If we have no awareness of this reality then we are still enamored with the world and under the power of Satan, enthralled by all the glitter, tinsel, and trappings of his artificial world that he has made so interesting and seductive. We are the seed which fell among the thorns; we heard, but as we went on our way we became choked with worries, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and brought no fruit to maturity. (Luke 8: 14)
Then what is the physical world all about? Didn't God create it? Isn't its beauty awe inspiring and magnificent? Romans 1: 20 says that God created the heavens and the earth to express Himself, His personality and attributes. Psalm 19: 1, 2 states:
"The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims His handiwork. Day and night they keep telling about God."
Creation is not glorious -- only the creator deserves glory. Earth is God's footstool, not His sanctuary. Our world is the creation of the Lord, now under the control of the evil one. It is a disposable item. It will pass away.
What then do we, as Christians, do with the earth that we live on? How do we view the world around us? The physical features of our earth and universe are a portraiture of the nature of God. All things were created as replicas of His spiritual world and its truths. The physical features of our world are stepping stones for man from the physical world that he knows to the spiritual world he does not know. God wishes us to be conversant with Him. He wants us to comprehend, recognize, experience, appreciate, understand, perceive, and welcome Him. So He made Himself visible to us through the things that He created. God spoke to us through the scriptures and underlined it and interpreted it through His creation. Man's understanding of God begins with the things that he can see and moves on to the things that he cannot see. Our world is the earthly copy of heavenly things. Earth is the replica, Heaven is the reality.
"All visible objects are but as pasteboard masks. If a man will strike, strike through the mask!" (Melville)
"Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal, brief, fleeting, but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting."
2 Corinthians 4: 18
"Although it is true that faith brings peace, yet it does not always bring it instantaneously. There may be certain reasons calling for the trial of faith, rather than the reward of faith. Genuine faith may be in the soul like a hidden seed but as yet may not have budded and blossomed into joy and peace."