God’s Home Is Sweet, Indeed

Today’s reading: John 14:1-4

I don’t know of anyone else who has taken a paycheck to the bank and seen it return a few days later stamped “insufficient funds.”

But it has happened to me several times — with three different employers. And that’s just the start of troubles I’ve seen on the job over the years.

I often recall my grandmother’s well-intended attempt to encourage me when I was a young man suffering through only my second or third episode of such broken promises and betrayal. (I’ve long since lost count of all the others).

“Don, if it weren’t for bad luck, you wouldn’t have any luck at all,” she said.

My coming to grace started when I acknowledged that my grandmother’s gist was wrong: I was not a passive victim to all of this “bad luck.”

It’s taken years, but I’ve now finally discovered that my “troubles” were all a result of a single, major, failing in my life:  I did not understand — and certainly did not believe — the words of Jesus in today’s reading.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If  it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.”

Now that I am thoroughly grounded in Jesus’s story, I understand His “luck” was far worse than mine.  He brought nothing but healing and peace to mankind, yet he suffered much more than a few bounced paychecks and unjust firings.

But his Father called him home to the same eternal glory He now promises for us all.

It’s funny. I can’t say the people around me have gotten much better at keeping their promises to me in recent years. But it turns out God’s promise is the only one I need.

Grandma, I know you can see from heaven that I no longer fret over all the “bad luck” the world sends my way. I just stay focused on Christ.

In fact, Grandma,  do you remember how you used to worry about all of those small, ramshackle apartments I lived in during my bad luck days?  Well, my diggs are much more comfortable today, huh? I’m right there next to you in our Father’s house, and we’ve got the best place ever!  Home sweet home sure is the truth, right?

Thanks be to God for the spot He has given me in his mansion! Turns out it’s the only home I will ever needed.