It is evening, the night before Jesus is to die. He is sitting with his best friends. He has just washed their feet. It is time for Jesus to say whatever he has to say. This is the last night, his last will and testament. And Jesus tries to tell his friends about heaven.
"In my Father's house," he says, "there are many rooms."
My grandmother had a huge house up the Hudson River from New York City. The house had nine bedrooms, which meant that every grandchild could own a room. My cousin Jody and I claimed a small room with two twin beds at the end of a long hallway. The hallway was full of pictures of our family, a gallery of memories: our parents wedding photos, grandparents, great grandparents. The room was ours. My grandmother kept it just the same for us. There was a certain smell. It was ours.
When I was going to have my first baby, we spent months on the nursery. We had Noah's ark theme. People gave us such great Noah's ark gifts. I made sure that the crib was well built for the baby, a great rocking chair, paintings, drapes. I needed to have that nursery ready to welcome my baby. It was my way of making it clear that there was a place in my life for my first child. I would just sit in that nursery and rock in the rocking chair, thinking of my baby and what it would be like to hold him in that room.
Jesus was trying to tell his disciples that God was preparing a place for them in heaven. Each one of them would have a special place, designed just for them. And God does the same thing for us. When we are born into eternal life, we will find that God has a place for us, designed specially for us, in heaven. My heavenly place would certainly look different than yours. God has so many areas that each one of us can be welcomed to a place just our own, lined with our favorite people, our colors, our flowers...a place of rest, refreshment, beauty and peace.
How can heaven have so many different places? Most of us tend to think of heaven as having a uniform quality for all people, a destination without complexity or variety. Most images of heaven in movies or tv show a plain white place, very sparce with little in it. It never looks comfortable or like home at all. I wonder why we are prone to think of heaven in such simple, bland, boring terms. Jesus assures us that there are many places within heaven. It is a complex and multifaceted place, where there is not only room for everyone but also specifically a special place just for you.
Jesus promises that he will come back for us and take us to the place he has prepared for us.
JD and I had been married only two years. I was to graduate Seminary and we planned to move to Connecticut, where we both had jobs. But I had to take some final exams so JD went ahead to find us a house. To this day, I can't believe that I actually bought a house sight unseen but I trusted his taste. We were the kind of couple who registered for wedding gifts with no disagreements. He knew me and what I liked. And I trusted him to buy us a house.
I will never forget first walking into this place that I knew was mine. It was like meeting an old friend. It just felt right. I was home.
Jesus says that he wants to bring us to himself. He goes ahead to get the space ready for us.
When a beloved mother or father is aging and must move into assisted living, often the children will create a new home for them. My friend Ed, after his wife died, had to move to assisted living. So his son had his favorite belongings set up in the new space, compete with his model airplanes and his favorite paintings. His son made a home for him. Ed called it his window to heaven.
Jesus was trying to tell us that heaven will not be some hotel that you don't recognize or some empty space full of white clouds. Heaven will be your true home and no one knows how to get it ready for you better than Jesus. The homes you have here are just reflections, shadows of your true home, where there don't need to be pictures on the walls of the hallways because the people you love will there there themselves, sitting on the sofa, smiling and ready for you to arrive.
In 1989, an earthquake shook the country of Armenia, killing thirty thousand people. Moments after the tremors ceased, a father rushed to the elementary school where his son studied. The school had collapsed. The father kept hearing his own promise to his son ringing in his ears, "No matter what happens, I will always come for you." When all the other parents were weeping and wailing, this father got to work. Using his bare hands, he began to remove the rubble. The other parents told him that it was useless. The children had been crushed. But the father would hear none of it. Without argument or explanation, he continued to dig. Eight hours, sixteen, thirty-two, thirty-six hours. The father's hands were raw and bleeding when he heard a faint voice. He called his son's name, "Arman! Arman!" and a voice answered..."Dad, it's me!" The boy would later explain to his father that he had told the other children not to worry. "I remembered your promise, that you would always come for me," he said.
Jesus has made you a promise. He will come for you. And he is even now preparing a place for you. So if this earthly place falls apart and it feels like the walls are caving in, remember that he goes ahead to prepare a place specially made, just for you.
