Bible Reading: John 14:1-4
I am going to prepare a place for you . … I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. John 14:2-3
WHERE’S YOUR HOME? Finger? Eyebrow? Coldfoot? (Those are real towns in Tennessee, Saskatchewan, and Alaska.) But a Christian’s better-than-Worms hometown is only a temporary residence. (Worms is in Nebraska.) It’s not temporary because you can’t wait to get out of Boring (in Oregon), but because Christ is preparing a permanent home in heaven. Paul said, “We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior” (Philippians 3:20).
Way back in the dark days, Christian youth groups used to gather around a large, floor-mounted acoustic instrument called a “piano” and sing a peppy little chorus about our other “home”:
This world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ through;
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me from heaven’s distant shore;
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
Where is “heaven’s distant shore”? And how do you get there?
Once again Jesus Christ steps in to show you the way. Jesus is the way to the Father. He’s the way to know what the Father is like. And he’s the way to bring glory to the Father as you pray in his name. But after all this, he won’t leave you stuck in this place where at times you “can’t feel at home.” He won’t abandon you with no hope of finding your way to heaven. When his time is right for you — either when he returns or the moment you die, whichever comes first — Jesus promises to take you to where he is. He’s your way to go home.
Do you realize that Jesus couldn’t show you how to get home if he hadn’t come down to earth? See, you need more than a map to find your way to God. You even need more than somebody to tell you the way. You need somebody to meet you where you are. Jesus finds you and takes you to where you need to be. The Son of God left his home in heaven and came into your world to show you the way home. And he came looking for you because he loves you.
REFLECT: Since Jesus came all this way, doesn’t it make sense to follow him to that heavenly home?
PRAY: Jesus, I want to make your way, my way. I want to follow you — through life, to heaven.
