Who doesn’t enjoy strolling through an award-winning garden or touring historic mansions like Vizcaya in Coconut Grove, Hearst Castle at San Simeon, or the du Pont Chateaux in the Brandywine Valley—all the time thankful you don’t pay for the upkeep!
Could I invite you on a tour of the most magnificent Home & Gardens ever designed? They’re out of this world!
John the disciple was reclining at dinner beside Jesus when he heard these wonderful words: “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 14:2-3)
Instead of “mansions,” some translations use the word “rooms,” but my Father doesn’t run a rooming house! I don’t find mansions particularly welcoming either. The word means a place where you feel at home. Of course, all who arrive there ARE home! It will suit you because, while Christ has prepared the place for you, He’s also been preparing you for the place.
But perhaps I’ve been too hasty. Are you heaven-bound? It’s not automatic, you know.
I heard of a Christian traveling by train to London. In the compartment with him, several men discussed the death of a friend of Charles Bradlaugh, the outspoken atheist. Finding their new traveling companion to be a Christian, one of the men posed a question.
“He was a respected family man, a good citizen. He contributed to the poor. But he had no time for God. When he died, where did he go?”
The Christian replied, “That’s a simple question. He went to his own place. Everybody goes to his own place, as we read Judas did. (Acts 1:25) But,” he added, “I have a Friend who’s invited me to His place, and by faith I’ve accepted His offer.”
Shocking as it may seem, heaven is not for good people! Jesus declared, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Luke 5:32) Heaven is for those who realize we’ve ruined God’s earth with our sin and selfishness; He won’t let us ruin heaven too.
But God, who still loves this world of sinners, found a way to bring us Home by His Son’s death for that sin. Once we accept Jesus as Savior—the only Door to Heaven—His place becomes our place too!
John, when much older, was given a preview of his future residence. He wrote, “I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold,…God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’” (Revelation 21:3-4) Amazing!
Are some people “so heavenly-minded they’re no earthly good”? Not so, wrote C.S. Lewis. “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”
Heaven-bound? It’s the next big stop on my itinerary.
Article by Jabe Nicholson first published in the Commercial Dispatch, Saturday, February 24, 2024.