A Place to Stay

Posted on April 4, 2011 by ELN

Guest blogger, Kelsey McReynolds, is an ELN student at Anthem, in Olympia, WA.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

God doesn’t give us much description of His house. There’s no mention of wall-to-wall carpeting or what the kitchen is like, if there’s a gym nearby or how nice the neighborhood is (although we can guess). But He does give us some revolutionary information; He has a house in heaven, and He’s making space in it for us as His sons and daughters (John 1:12). God’s adoption of us is outrageous and inconceivable; not only does He tell His disciples about His house in this Scripture, but He assures them that He’ll be taking them to it, that there will be enough room, and that although He’ll leave, He’ll be back for them.

The picture I see is of a child asking their parent if they can bring a stray dog home. Full of compassion, the parent agrees, and they make up a place for their new family friend. God has endless resources and a heart more full of compassion than any human can manage, so of course He opens His home for us stray souls. Yet instead of being considered dogs, we have been elevated by God as co-heirs in Christ, given the directions to His kingdom, and given a place to stay once we get there!

God promises to never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6) and when Jesus prepares to leave the earth, He assures His disciples that the Holy Spirit will be with them (John 16:7). What human isn’t scared of abandonment and what human wouldn’t be comforted by these promises that He will never depart from us? There are so many times when I haven’t trusted God because I wasn’t firm that He knew what was best for me, whether it was trusting Him with my dreams, my future, or my heart. But He promises that He is trustworthy (Psalm 33:4) and that His promises are true (Joshua 23:14). Yet still sometimes I fear that His place for me isn’t as solid as it sounds. It’s my mission and desire to see the areas where I still haven’t given Him my trust, to ask for open eyes to see the reality of His goodness, and to trust completely that He is with me, preparing my place at His side, even if I can’t see it yet.

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