Many Rooms

I don't know this for a fact, but our family lives in one of the biggest houses in Dulce. A story-and-a-half, with a full basement. Five bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. As we have arranged things inside there is plenty of space for our family of five, and a spare bedroom for guests who stay with us.

The house was built in 1914, for the first pastor of our church. I think that he and his wife had six children and the house used to have six bedrooms. Somewhere along the way one bedroom was converted into a bathroom. The house was built to last, with an adobe exterior, which keeps things a bit cooler in the summertime.

Yesterday I preached from John 14:1-6. Among the things that John writes there are these words of Jesus:

"In my Father's house are many rooms."

As Jesus gets ready to leave his disciples he does not simply say "See ya later!" but wants them to know, with certainty, God's long-range plan. And part of God's long-range plan is to gather every single one of his children and bring them home. That's where the imagery of a house comes in.

A house represents a home, a place where a person can come and rest. A place where, ideally, everything will work out fairly easily. Meals, conversation, recreation, sleep…whatever the activity may be in the ideal home it will happen without trouble. And if there is any home that is ideal, it is certain to be the one to which God gathers his children.

"Many rooms."  It’s a large house. It’s a spacious house. And it’s a house whose capacity can always handle another resident.

I think the idea of "many rooms" means two things. One is that we who have faith in Jesus can be assured of having a place there. It won’t be like when I was a child and shared a room with two brothers for a period of time. Each person will be able to have a place of their own.

And the other thing is that we can extend an invitation to others to come and join us. To move in with the family, so to speak. Every Christian knows people who, today, are outside of saving faith in Jesus. If you are like me, you probably know and dearly love people who don’t have saving faith, and it is the desire of your heart that one day they would cross that line and be welcomed to that home.

It's a house with many rooms. One for you, and maybe one for someone you dearly love. Pray for that person and pray that God would give you an opportunity to share the love you have received from him with them.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.