“I want to go home!”
It is not an uncommon statement. There is something about home that brings comfort. It is where we put our feet up, can be ourselves, and appreciate familiar surroundings. Home is where we are most at ease. Where we are most content.
After being away from home for a while we can become anxious to get back to our normal surroundings. Where everything is familiar. Our grandchildren seem to sleep better when they are home in their own beds. Being at home is appealing.
However, as I think about home, there is a different home that comes to mind. I think of Jesus’ statement to His disciples in John 14. He said,
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 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? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
Jesus would prepare a place in His Father’s home for us. It emphasized that this life is not the complete picture. The writer to the Hebrews wrote in chapter 13 the following.
14 For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.
The home he is describing is the home Jesus said He would prepare for us. However, to get there requires the difficult part of life – Death. Each day people die, and are born for that matter. Yet, when this human experience of death impacts our lives the sense of home is felt more deeply.
Recently, I felt this as I performed a funeral and my wife’s grandma passed away.
The funeral was for someone younger than me, which is always harder. As disease ate away at their physical body, their spirit was renewed. In the many conversations we had, they were not anxious about what was to come. They were ready, they were ready to be home.
My wife’s grandma was 97 and lived a full long life. She was in her own home until the end. She loved being with people, especially with family. She was hospitable, gracious, and loving. In recent years, there were numerous times when she commented about how she longed to be home, to be in the presence of Jesus. Especially, after her husband passed away.
While we rejoice in her being “home” we feel the loss of her leaving this life.
As my oldest daughter wrote:
I’m not sure any of us will ever fully grasp the number of lives she impacted over her 97 years on this earth, but I do know that I am eternally grateful for the 31 years I had to call her grandma and that I wouldn’t be the same person without her unconditional love. Oh, sweet grandma, you’re at peace, healthy, and at home with Jesus and Grandpa now, where you’ve longed to be for so many years. And as happy as I am for you, I’m equally as sad for all of us left here to miss you. I love you forever, see you later.
See you later.
It is not goodbye as we will see her again because of Jesus. Because He has gone to prepare a place for us. One of His followers, Paul, wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 that while we live in these bodies we are “not at home with the Lord.” However, he added that when we die and are away from these bodies, we “will be at home with the Lord.”
Our loved ones are at home because of Jesus. Another follower of Jesus, Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3,
18 Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.
His death and resurrection were the means for us to get safely home. When Jesus told His followers that He was preparing a place for them, some wondered about how they would get there. The desire to get home is great, but how can it happen?
It is a question people still ask. Yet, the answer by Jesus remains the same.
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
We can arrive safely at home because Jesus has made a way for us – He is the way, the truth, and the life.