Spiritually Homeless

John 14:1-3

Watch on YouTube

The text for today’s devotion comes to us from the Gospel of John, chapter 14. Jesus says to his disciples,

“Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. (John 14:1-3)

My grandpa was a carpenter, and my dad is really good at woodworking and unfortunately I didn’t inherit any of their skills. But it was always really fun growing up watching them work on different projects. Sometimes they even teamed up and worked on projects together.

Tradition tells us that Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, was a carpenter by trade and that Jesus might have learned that trade growing up being around Joseph. And that’s certainly possible. I always like to think of that as I read these words of Jesus, where Jesus talks about building a mansion for us in his heavenly kingdom and in His Father’s place. In heaven where the father is. And what a great and joyous, wonderful promise from Jesus to his believers that one day we’re going to live with him in the mansions of heaven. We can think of the fact that there’s a mansion with our name on it, written in gold, all because of Jesus and what he has done for us, and that it’s waiting there for us one day.

It’s a great comfort for us, and it’s especially wonderful to think about because as sinners by nature, we are spiritually homeless. We think back to our first parents, Adam and Eve, when they lived in the Garden of Eden, in perfection with God in that blessed place. And what happened to them on account of their sin, they were kicked out and they became spiritually homeless, right? They were kicked out of the Paradise garden that they lived in.

And through Jesus, we have promise from God that we will one day live in a new kind of Eden, restored a perfect, beautiful, heavenly kingdom with God, our Heavenly Father. And this brings us so much joy. We don’t deserve it as sinners. And yet it is Jesus promise to us that we’ll be there one day with him, and will be where he is.

That’s the greatest joy of heaven as Christians, is that we’ll get to be with God in His presence forever. What joy! We’re also reminded too then, that as we go about our lives in this world, in this temporary earthly home that we live in, we’re to give thanks to God for all that we have in our life. We can give thanks to him for the home that we have to live in, the house that we have to live in, we think about, especially during this winter time. We so often take it for granted that we have a warm place to live in, and so we should be willing to help others who are in less fortunate circumstances than we are.

And we ought to help out with those who are homeless, who maybe don’t have a place of their own. Maybe we can help out by volunteering at a local homeless shelter, by making meals, or if we’re financially blessed to give money towards good causes like that, so that other people may have a physical place to live in in this world. And also we should share with them the gospel, the good news of forgiveness and salvation in Jesus, so that they too may no longer be spiritually homeless, but have a home with the father, even as we do, to have that promise of the mansion in heaven waiting for them too one day.

And this is our joy together as Christians, then, that we’re no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with God in the household of God. And we will live with our God forever and ever. What joy and peace in Jesus, the one who has built a future for us, the one who is building a mansion for us and our hearts look forward to that day when we will be with him there forever. Amen.