Tuesday, June 14

John 14:1-6

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In 1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. Upon his return to earth, he earned points with the atheist communist regime by proclaiming that he hadn’t seen God in space. Leaving aside the question of who created space to begin with – astronomers tell us that it would take 100,000 years traveling at the speed of light just to reach the edge of our galaxy; and our galaxy is just one of billions in the universe. Yet, Mr. Gagarin traveled 100 miles from earth and concluded that God does not exist! When you think about it – that’s like sticking your toe in the Pacific Ocean and determining whales do not exist because one did not bite your big toe!

The first thing we must understand and trust about what Jesus says about heaven is that heaven is real! Heaven is not, as both Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud believed, an escapist fantasy human beings dreamed up to make themselves feel better when faced with the reality of death. Heaven is not just a psychological crutch for the weak. Heaven is real, Jesus says, heaven is a place.

Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
While theologians may debate the actual location of heaven, there can be no debate that Jesus is teaching us that heaven is real – as real as the home you are living in right now - and is a place being prepared for those who follow Jesus.

In his essay, “The Great Divorce,” C.S. Lewis describes heaven as the real world for which we were created – and earthly life as a kind of phantom existence only intended to prepare us for heaven. Lewis imagines heaven as a world so real that, were we to go there as we are now, we would be unable to even walk on the grass because the blades of grass would go right through our feet. We would be unable to pick up a fallen leaf because it would be too heavy for us to lift. Lewis’ notion that heaven is more real than earthly life – along with his vision of heaven’s beauty and adventure - allowed me, perhaps for the first time, to actually look forward to being there!

Notice that Jesus says he is going to prepare a place for us. Last week our son Jesse graduated from high school. His grandparents on both sides, as well as my wife’s sister, came into town to celebrate the event. We spent the few weeks prior to the event preparing for their arrival. We had our family room re-painted; we power-washed and re-stained our front porch and back deck; we put new mulch in our flower beds; we mowed and trimmed the lawn – and we did all that because we wanted our home to be their home – clean and comfortable – for the time they were with us.

What does it mean that Jesus himself is preparing heaven for our arrival? I don’t know if it means he is repainting rooms – or re-staining the great porch of heaven – but I do know that it means he loves us and wants us to know that when that day comes, our eternal home will be ready!

Thank him for preparing a place for you!

Brian Coffey