A New Home!

Six months ago, my parents-in-law packed up and moved out of their house, ready to begin retirement.  They were told they would be able to move into their newly built house by the end of summer.  The construction company was a bit off schedule, as September, October, and November passed by and the house still wasn't finished.  Finally, the weekend before Christmas, the house was ready!

We loaded up the kids and headed over to help them move in.  My dear husband made multiple trips with a U-Haul truck for four days - loading, unloading, carrying.  We were so glad, so relieved that the time had finally come!  We wanted so badly for them to be in their house before Christmas.

My husband recently shared a story during one of his sermons:  Growing up as a United Methodist pastor's kid, he moved from house to house fairly frequently, his father being assigned to a different church every several years.  When they'd pack up then set up house in their new location, it didn't feel like "home" until they'd had a Christmas there.

Now I know why my husband loves Christmas so much - carefully placing heirloom decorations, decking the halls, putting up the tree and hanging ornaments, each representing a family memory - to him, this means home.  To him, it means safety.  Security.  Peace. Comfort.  Home.

We may need to move from this house one day, but home we will carry with us.

As 2014 comes to an end and we move on to a new year, not knowing what may happen - job changes, moving, marriages, some lives beginning and other lives ending...I pause to think about something I know will happen in the future.  Something I can depend on. 

My home in heaven! 

It is described in John 14, as Jesus tells his disciples:

"My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and 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.”

We are not his original disciples, but we can know the way to go where he has gone:

Thomas replied “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."

There you have it!  Through Jesus - through faith in:

Who He Is and What He Did 

That He was born, lived a perfect life, and was crucified, 

then returned to life in order that we may believe in him for the forgiveness of our sins -

We have a promise.  We are sealed for heaven!  

If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you have the assurance that He has prepared a place for you in heaven.  In his house there are many rooms, and he has prepared a room just for you!  

So, no matter how many changes you experience this year or the next or the next, there is a constant you can trust in: Eternity with God in heaven!  A New Home!

And nothing,

Absolutely NOTHING,
 
can take that away from you!  

May God bless you in your endeavors in 2015, and may you find his grace and his peace a comforting promise to trust in as you look forward to your new home...whenever your move-in date might be!!