Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. – John 14:1-4
In my Father’s house: The English language changed a lot from 1611
-- even to 1811, but we kept reading the same Bible, and clergymen kept
preaching reassuring messages and finding hope and encouragement in the Lord’s
words from John 14. There’s nothing
wrong with that. Still I’m not looking for
“a mansion just over the hilltop”. I can’t
figure any reason I would need a mansion in heaven. If it turns out that I need to sleep when I
get there, I would imagine the weather would be good for sleeping outside.
Where I do need “stopping places” and shelters by the
wayside are on this road I walk now. Our
lives are already and always “hidden with Christ in God”. We have a place in the Father’s house. You know, though, you don’t want your
teenager sleeping in his old crib. As we
grow and in order that we may grow, we change rooms.
We get the idea that we are going to reach some point of
ease and comfort and just stay there. I
don’t think it works that way. We are
brought into new places for some good God sees that needs to be done, though we
are not necessarily aware of all the repercussions and consequences. The main thing is that we learn to trust Him in
every room to which He leads us. After
all, we are always in His house.
That can be hard to believe.
When He puts us in the library, that’s nice; we can believe in a cozy
bedroom with a fireplace. Sometimes we
are in the coal cellar, or feeding fuel into the cooking stove in the summer
heat, or freezing alone in a dusty garret where we bump our heads on the
rafters. I think there are even dungeons
in the Father’s house. That may be the
only place some of us are fit for at times.
Yet it is still within His house, and no cry that goes up from the
darkest and most secluded cell is unheard or unheeded.
7 comments:
If one does the math, the house is an aperiodic crystal, with 360 decillion facets. Lots of room to roam.
I guess one third of that would be bad neighborhoods.
He goes to prepare a place (his creation is not yet finished?)... but once pounded nails here, so it stands that this old Earthly plane is indeed one of those rooms. Except that it's not the same room for everyone; nor is it the same room at all times for any one.
Thanks for helping keep my mind boggled. ;-)
Don't thank me. It was your picture.
We are brought into new places for some good God sees that needs to be done, though we are not necessarily aware of all the repercussions and consequences.
Good post Mush. It is making me change my outlook a little. I used to think that this life was a workout for the soul. Now, I'm thinking it is simply our work. Be it suffering, patience, whatever the problem. Our proper response is our job.
Oh well, back to work.
Might even think of each room as a school-room.
To be schooled, With the very best Teacher of course.
I take it to mean a place in His heart; perhaps our "old room" before we left. Where we walked together once. The opposite of being forgotten. In the Origen book, Origen talks about his hope that he will be some spec of gold in His throne. Or at least a bit of thatch in the roof of the tabernacle. That he will participate in something larger and very important to God. That God needs him, I suppose.
Yes, Revelation talks about those who will be pillars in the temple. I would agree with Origen that's way too ambitious for me to contemplate. We're some part of it. Something that needs to be there. If God is happy, I can be happy.
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