Our dwelling place

John 14: 1 - 6

"In my Father's house are many rooms.......I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am"

Rooms of all shapes and sizes, rooms for different purposes. Some are fortunate to have larger homes and separate bedrooms for each person, not to mention different areas for dining, for guests, for the TV and computer. But more often than not, many find themselves having to make do with 'multi--purpose' rooms where dining, living and recreation take place. I value my own 'space' very much. But living in a 1300 square feet apartment (for a family of four) means that I have to be creative. I may not have my own prayer room, but I can have a prayer corner where I can hear birdsong every morning....although I do not have a garden I can call my own. Do I long for a larger house? Not really, for after all, the children will move out at some stage and a 'home' is much more than the actual floor area available. As the old saying goes, it is the relationships that make a home a home, not the building itself.

Similarly, in the reading today, the 'rooms' mentioned by Jesus do not refer to heavenly palatial residences. The attraction is not the luxurious style of heavenly dwellings. The true comfort is that the promised place of residence is one where Jesus dwells. The prepared rooms are rooms where Jesus lives, the very places he desires us to enter. Perhaps we could even imagine such places 'bearing our name on it'. We are invited into the residence, the presence, the 'rooms' of Jesus himself. Such a life, one of unending fellowship with Christ, is indeed unimaginable. We often speak of it, we often long for it....and perhaps catch glimpses of it as we are drawn into fellowship with Christ while living in this world. And perhaps this vision of our future dwelling place will spark a holy longing for truer and more intimate fellowship with our Lord, even now. This holy longing does not mean we seek an experiential high just to feel good. Rather, it gives us an eternal vantage point from which to view this world and all its alluring securities. Our true home awaits us. We will return to the embrace of our God sooner or later. May we invest well in this life, in a way that anticipates our true home.

Take me home to your dwelling place

In your sweet embrace

Ready to hold me in your arms;

Take me home to your loving eyes

With you again I'll rise, singing forever,

In your arms, take me home.

(David Haas) A very moving song I heard sung not long ago at a funeral