A place for you

We were having our morning coffee when Brad said he woke up thinking of the verse, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” A good morning conversation. I looked up the verse in my New American Standard Bible reading several verses. Jesus said:

“Do not let your heart be troubled, believe in God believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14: 1-4)

Over the last several years, since we found that Brad has mild cognitive impairment, and since he has not been able to work, I have been, probably, over concerned, with our house. It is now one hundred and eleven years old. And it was looking very old indeed! In some places the paint had completely peeled off and we had already experienced the sewage backing up in the downstairs apartment. We got a reverse mortgage and have been slowly repairing and renewing our home. But thinking of the above verses I realized I am too, too concerned about my earthly living space.

As I studied and thought of the verses through the week several phrases and words jumped out at me. The beauty of that place that Jesus has and is preparing is that it is his preparation and his alone. No worries; we rest in him.

Brad is finding it harder and harder to do simple tasks. He wanted to make coffee himself one morning, but he needed me there to show him each step and still it was hard. In that place with Jesus the tasks will be joyful, graceful and once again full of dignity. And dignity will be given with grace because we are in Christ and belong to him.

William Hendriksen in his commentary on John points out that Jesus isn’t just coming to take us somewhere, (heaven), he is taking us to “himself.”  He writes:

“Observe that instead of saying what one might expect him to say, namely, ‘And when I go and prepare a place for you, I come again and will take you to that place,’ Jesus says something that is far more comforting: “I will take you to myself’ (or: to be face to face with me …). So wonderful is Christ’s love for his own that he is not satisfied with the idea of merely bringing them to heaven. He must needs take them into his own embrace.”

I am learning to be still in my soul and body, just sitting and listening and visiting with Brad. We have coffee every morning except Monday when he goes to a small men’s Bible study. With our morning coffee we sit in the kitchen/family room and visit. Morning and evening are the hardest times for Brad to put his thoughts together and remember words and concepts. But he does remember so much of the past. And we talk about the past and people we have known.

Yesterday he asked me where we lived before we lived here. (We have lived in this house for 30 years. Thirty one in August.) I told him, and then he wanted to know which of the children were still at home when we moved here. We talked about all of the people who have lived in our house and in the apartment downstairs. About the different children who have moved back home and then moved out again. About Miles Saunders who lived in our front bedroom for a year, and Gwen Davies who lived in our apartment before going to the mission field. And all of the great granddaughters who have lived down stairs. One was even born down there.

Often in the evening, (Brad usually goes to bed by 8:30), we sit on the front porch and visit. And watch for airplanes. That is something Brad can see because of their flashing lights; we have a small local airport near us so there are low flying planes.

But homes don’t last forever—except—the home that is found in Jesus. Found in him now, and found in him forever.