2 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? – John 14:2
Picture Partners
A few days ago while visiting my father, we were looking through some pictures of my childhood days. As we were reminscing about days gone by, my father pulled out a picture from his childhood days. A picture I had never seen before.
The picture dated back to the early 1940s. In the picture was my father as a young boy in a wagon and his best friend and next door neighbor Jerry, sitting on a tricycle with his gangly legs forcing his knee into the handlebar. With smiles on their faces these juvenile “partners in crime” were proudly displaying their getaway wheels. One would have never imagined from their carefree expressions that a man named Hitler was threatening the world around them.
And why should the innocence of youth concern itself with the likes of Hitler? After all, in the backgorund of the picture was my father’s childhood house, and next to it was Jerry’s. There may be evil lurking in the shadows of the world “out there”, but in the eyes of a child reared in a loving home; “it can it ever penetrate my father’s house!” Hence, while their father’s were carrying the world’s burdens on their shoulders, with their trusty wheels, dad and Jerry were busy playing out the games of their imaginations. Imaginations that had no concept of just how fast the wheels were turning.
Business Buddies
Before they knew it, dad and Jerry would upgrade from wagons and bikes to automobiles. In time, they would each marry and begin families of their own. As time matured these boyhood buddies it also forged their friendship. In fact, they would each run businesses on “bookends” of Main Street and often lunch together at a restaurant between their respective stores.
As fathers, it was now up to them to buy houses of their own and transform them into homes where their wives and children would feel loved and protected. Homes where their children could pull their wagons and ride their bikes immune from the evils “out there”.
Although Hitler would no longer dominate the world scene, each generation has it’s own threats, trials and worries. As fathers striving to provide the safe haven that a home represents, the carefree days of childhood would give way to the responsibilities and wrinkles of adulthood.
Bygone Days
Sadly, with the passage of time the wheels not only go faster but they often take unexpected turns. The troubles lurking in the shadows will eventually come out. My father’s gangly childhood buddy was buried much too young. But it wasn’t just Jerry that succumbed to the shadows. A couple of years later my father would bury his only sibling. And then just last year he became a widower. Ready or not, the wheels of time pull all of us along with them. Oftentimes over difficult terrain.
Prior to reminiscing over the old pictures with my father, we had been rummaging through “mom’s” rooms in search of some papers. Now shut off by closed doors since her death, these rooms sometimes feel more like tombs. There is now an aura of “sacredness” attached to her belongings. Accordingly, my father doesn’t sit in mom’s chair or turn on her television. Although she is gone, they are still reserved for her. Which prompted a flash back of my own.
As a young boy, I went on a visit to the grandparents of my own childhood buddy. Behind his grandparent’s house was a shed full of “treasures”. Like every good treasure chest the shed was securely locked. Peering through the windows I could see a motorcycle and other “valuable” items covered with dust. When I questioned him, my buddy told me that these possessions were put in the shed when his uncle left for Vietnam. They were locked in there until he returned for them. The dust covered motorcycle is a reminder to all of us that we should never take our homes for granted. All too soon death will begin closing and locking doors.
As time passes us by and the death of our loved ones deepen our furrows, a sense of resignation begins to take hold. We begin to lose the strength and stamina to fight off the world’s Hitlers. Korea and Vietnam take a lot of the wind out of our sails. With each closing door of our homes, there is a corresponding door that closes in our hearts. Never again to be reopened. The memories locked behind them are left to themselves to collect dust, paying a lonely mans’ tribute to the past.
Home Longings
As we stood in my father’s kitchen looking at his dated picture, there was a glimmer in his eyes and a yearning in his voice. And although a generation removed from his memories, I could understand his longing. Much of life has passed him by, and who could blame him for wanting to “go home”? Don’t we all?
In the background of his old picture I could see my father’s childhood house, but that wasn’t his “home”. His home was inside where his parents and brother were. His home was where he was loved and cherished. It was where he was safe and secure. It was where he was relaxed and comfortable. That home is long gone.
We like to use the expression, “Home is where the heart is.” And this is so true. But we have to remember our homes are not static, but dynamic. As the wheels continue to turn our children mature and move out. Sadly, the day will come when many of us will bury our spouses. With each of these occurrences, our homes change. Before we know it our homes have metamorphosized back into empty houses with closed doors. When the love has moved out and passed on, so many people, perhaps like my father, long to “go home”.
But the wheels never stop, and they never go in reverse.
Home Maker
Although the son of a carpenter, the Bible tells us that Jesus had no place to lay His head. In other words, as an itinerant teacher, He had no house to call His own. Rather, He and His disciples were dependent upon the kindness of others to open their homes to them. If not they were left to fend for themselves, often sleeping outdoors.
It is hard to imagine anyone not offering our Savior a room, but I believe the manger in Bethlehem was more of a sign of things to come than an exception. Joseph and Mary were met with closed doors at the inn because there was no room for them. How often would Jesus face closed doors later in life because of homes (and hearts) that had no room for Him? After all He was a controversial teacher. He was scorned for associating with sinners and tax collectors. Accordingly, the religious leaders of the day saw Him as a threat and associating with Him could be dangerous.
But imagine how the dynamics must have changed in a household that allowed Jesus entrance. The sense of love and security that crossed the threshold with Him must have been overwhelming. This son of a carpenter may not have had a house to call His own but can anyone build a home out of a household like the Son of God? Who besides Jesus can soften a father’s harsh tongue? Who besides Jesus can transform a rebellious “monster” into a submissive son? Certainly no human counselor can mend a strained marriage relationship like Him. The great physician can cure any household ailment.
As long as we grant Him entrance.
Preparing Rooms
Jesus was God in the flesh. He was perfect love with a beating heart. He was omnipotence with hands and feet. He was omniscience with emotions. But He humbly left His home in heaven to reside for a while with us on earth. With one objective. To make a way back home. For us.
Jesus’ heart, like ours, is tethered to home. Jesus can relate to the yearning of my father. In fact he gave it to him. Our Heavenly Father created us to be relational beings capable of loving and being loved. Accordingly, the family unit was His idea. And so was the home. But as powerful as they are, the earthly versions are merely a foretaste, or shadow, of reality to come.
While He walked this earth, Jesus became “life” to His disciples. Hence when He warned them of His imminent death they were shocked, confused and afraid. They were afraid of life without Him, and rightly so. But Jesus knew how to comfort them.
Jesus would never leave His followers as orphans. He would never leave them nor forsake them. Quite to the contrary, on the other side of the grave He was joining His Father in Heaven to prepare homes for His children.
Going Home
The wheels continue to roll. The children in the photographs continue to age. As they do, their carefree days are hijacked by years of worry which in turn surrender to indifference. All the while, homes become empty houses with closed doors shutting in dusty reminders of the life and love that we once knew and cherished.
But we do well to heed the words of Christ. This world is not our home. We belong in Heaven with Christ our Savior. That is what His heart longs for, and ultimately so should ours.
Between us and our Heavenly Father an impassible chasm existed. Our sins blocked any hope of return to God. But Christ left His Home in Heaven and died on Calvary’s cross in our place. He took our wrath and with the Cross made a way back home across the chasm that separated us from God. He wants us to return to the Home that our hearts are tethered to.
As Jesus has promised, nothing is more safe or secure than our Heavenly Homes. There will be no evils lurking in any shadows. Certainly no home could ever be as comfortable or carefree as the one He is preparing for us. Best of all, our Heavenly Father’s home will have no doors to close because there will be no death to close them.
I am thankful for childhood pictures. I am thankful that I can reminisce over them with my father. And certainly I am grateful for the home my parents provided for my siblings and me.
Let the wheels turn. As a child of God these things help me to see more clearly the promise of Jesus.
” Let not your hearts be troubled…I go to prepare a place for you”