“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:1-3

In a season of one obsession after another due to fear or self-preservation, having ‘a place’ can seem out of reach.  The internet is crammed with articles describing lumber and housing shortages where only those with the extra cash and the technology to give them the ‘leads’ prevail.   Many of us can feel like we are going to be left with the scraps of life.  However, there is a difference between a house and a place we live.  A house is just something to fill, how we live there is what makes it our home.  The scripture above is one I think of when I think of how my dad built me a dollhouse.  He built it out of love just as God builds a place for us.  God’s place does not need a new roof, constant maintenance, and cannot be evicted from or foreclosed upon.  All He wants is to be with us…always.

In my own life this has been true.  I am in a different season of life now, but there was a time when we lost a job, a house, a car, and there was no money in the bank.  It was a season of loss for us.  However, that same season brought friends sharing groceries, our first lovely daughter, and knit my husband I together in our relationship as we clung to the Lord who would never leave us.

When you look up the translation of ‘mansions,’ it simply means: a staying, abiding, dwelling, abode, to make one’s abode.  The verse mentions there are many of these dwellings.  I do not imagine heaven as having endless rows of mansions where each of us lives alone in a large space we have always dreamed of.  Knowing what I know of God, He is a God who loves people and loves interaction with us and between us.  I am convinced heaven will be a perfect, clear, uncomplicated version of this, where our uniqueness and His amazing glory surrounds us with many to share it with. 

Though the world does not consistently make a place for us in this life, Jesus does.  He is constant.  He makes a place for us not just when our time here is done, but also in this life.  We do not walk it alone.  So, let not our hearts be troubled, the God of the universe is our advocate.  He is on our side.  If we make Him our home, we are set for life.