Imagine being in the circle of disciples the day Jesus spoke these words:
In my Father’s house are many rooms. 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, that where I am you may be also (John 14:2–3 ESV).
Their souls were agitated. They had finally accepted the reality that Jesus was going to die and that it would happen soon. They’d also just heard the news that one of their own would betray Him.
They were low, tempted to abandon their mission and go back to a safer life of the familiar and routine. But here was Jesus, the One they’d grown to love and trust, telling them about what life and ministry would be like without Him at their side.
What an outlandish calling! Keep doing what they’d been doing? Put their confidence in a Spirit they couldn’t see?
And with that, Jesus begins to talk about His Father’s house, a place of absolute beauty and perfection … where He would be waiting for them. And for you.
There, the promise of the covenant will be fulfilled. God will be with us, and we with Him. Never to part.
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3–4).
Until then, we too have an outlandish calling.