Homecoming
When you picture home, what do you see? Is the house small or big? A trailer or a mansion? When you think of home, do you think of a town or a farm, a building or a room? A more important question is, do you see places, or do you see faces? Do you have fond memories of times around the table, in the kitchen, or the yard? Or are your thoughts clouded by anger, by fear, or regret? Are your memories of home loving or lonely, happy or hard? The good news is, no matter how you answer these questions, there is hope for healing and joy because as long as you live in this world, your picture of home is not complete. You can choose to fill in the blank space with more of the same or with better times with more grace. The truth is, if you’re God’s child, this world is not your home. Your home is with your Heavenly Father. It is a place of beauty and fun, of joy and love. Our future is truly a homecoming. Our home is coming. God is bringing Heaven here.
Imagine this: You have just completed a two-week road trip to visit your in-laws, and you are driving home. You’re about an hour away, and you are desperate. You think, “Are we almost there? Are we almost home?” What do you want so desperately? You want your bed. You want your recliner, your shower, and pink luffa. You just want to be home!
Why do we say, “There’s no place like home?” It’s because there is rest available to us at home that’s not available anywhere else. At home you can really relax. You can totally be yourself, walk around in your underwear, make all kinds of embarrassing sounds, and wear those old, ratty sweatpants your wife won’t let you wear out of the house. But we can’t stay there. We have to go to work. We have to get the kids to practice and the dog to the vet. We have to go to every store in town because the Raman Noodles are sold out at every grocery store. Then there’s the bank, the gym, that meeting at the school, and we’ve got to do something about that rash. There’s so much to do, and we just get weary.
Have you ever felt weary? I mean really weary, burnt out, frustrated with life, sick of the job? Have you ever thought, “The kids are wearing me down. I can’t do it anymore.” Did you know Jesus felt like that? One time, the night before he was killed, Jesus was so exhausted and overwhelmed that his body began to shut down. He sweat drops of blood, so he asked his disciples to pray. Then he prayed. Why was he so distressed? He knew it was time. He knew that soon he would be killed.
[Jesus] told them “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour?
Jesus asked his disciples to stay awake and pray with him three times before he finally quit asking them. He let his disciples get some rest. Jesus and his disciples were exhausted. They had traveled all over Israel. They were ridiculed because of the statements Jesus was making. The glee of witnessing lives being changed and bodies being healed was exciting, but exhausting. In addition, they had just eaten the Passover meal. That’s a big meal. I don’t know about you, but when I eat a big meal, I get tired. The meal also included quite a bit of wine. That too can make you tired.
Maybe that’s why Jesus washed his disciples’ feet in that upper room. He knew they were tired and weary from their travels. After Jesus washed their feet, he delivered some encouraging words. He reminded them that they would never experience complete rest until they were home in Heaven, a home that would be bigger and better than anything they could possibly imagine.
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
This is a description of our homecoming. God is building a mansion for each of us, and someday he’s going to bring them to us. All your Christian family members who have died will be there. Your Christian friends will be there, and because God will be there, we too will be there.
Jesus is the way. If you’re trying to get to Heaven any other way, you won’t make it. We could never get to Heaven on our own. We are not strong enough, but Jesus bought it for us. He built a home for us, and he made a way for us to get there.
So, what about you? There is a home in Heaven for you, but there’s only one way there. Give your life to Jesus Christ. Make him your Lord. He built you a home in Heaven, then he died on a cross so your sins could be forgiven, and that forgiveness is the key to your eternal home. Jesus is the key. So take the key. It’s the greatest gift ever given. Someday Heaven will come to Earth, and all things will be made new. Will you be at home here?
Not long ago, after church, my 6-year-old son asked, “Dad, if the soldiers killed Jesus, then he rose from the dead, why didn’t he kill the soldiers who killed him?” I said, “Jesus died so he could forgive people for sinning, and the first people he forgave were the people who killed him.”
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
If you have received God’s forgiveness, you are a child of God, and you will live in his Kingdom forever. He has built you a forever home, and because you have chosen to trust him to save you, rather than attempting to earn salvation, your eternity with him is secure. Today, spend some time attempting to imagine Heaven. What will it be like when you see all of your Christian family and friends in Heaven?