Good morning: When you’re traveling, it’s reassuring to know you have a place waiting for you at the end of a long day on the road. So you reserve a hotel room which will be there in your name whether you arrive at 6 p.m. or midnight. It’s even better when you have family or friends to welcome you with a guest room ready and waiting. Jesus assured the anxious disciples, “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” (Jn. 14:2). The following day he would lay down his life for the sins of the world. He would rise in glory and ascend to the Father’s right hand. Even now he intercedes for us with the Father on the basis of his saving work. We have a place waiting for us prepared by Jesus. He will come again to take us home. Sometimes people imagine heaven as an immaterial, ethereal existence without real substance. But just as our homes now are real and built on a real, physical earth; so our heavenly home is likewise a real, physical place where we will live with the Lord and fellow believers for all eternity. Our bodies take up space. Our feet need a place to stand. Heaven is our perfect home ready and waiting. Not only does Jesus tell us he has a place for us, he gives us physical reassurance in the water of baptism combined with the Word, and the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper along with his body and blood. You probably have many questions about life in heaven. Most of us do. What age will we appear to be? What will we do? Scripture doesn’t give us many specifics. We’ll have to wait for the answers. But the one thing that matters is that we will be with the Lord Jesus. “We shall see him as he is” (1 Jn. 3:2). “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4). As we begin a new day, it’s good to know there’s a place waiting at the end of our travels, a place to call home forever. Yours in Christ, Pastor Service time tomorrow is 9 a.m., followed by Sunday school and Bible class. The adult Bible class will consider how the entrance of Israel into the promised land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua is not only a foreshadowing, but also an assurance of our home waiting in heaven.
