A Place Prepared
Helen Francis
A couple of Sundays ago ,we sang a song with a line that always pierces me in a strange way: "in my Father's house, there's a place for me."
I love the reassurance it brings but, for a long time & for reasons I'm not even too sure of, I wasn't as sure of this truth as I should be. Yes, I believed there was a place for me, but I had a sneaking feeling it was more like the dog house!
In trying to really understand what it meant for me to have a place in my Father’s house, I went back to the main scripture that ties to it in John 14. Here, Jesus says to his disciples:
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.
John 14:2 (NKJV)
The word 'mansions' is an odd choice for the King James translators, in today's world it conjures up stately homes, and the sentence makes very little sense. Other translations choose ‘rooms’ but I don't find this really helps me as it rather echoes the opposite of reassurance, it can sound isolating, akin to the ominous ‘Go to your room’!
But obviously these words of Jesus are not meant to alarm or rebuke, after all he begins verse 1 of chapter 14 with: "Do not let your hearts be troubled".
Looking back into chapter 13, it's easy to see why the disciples might be troubled. To them, Jesus’ behaviour & what he was saying was probably extremely alarming: he acted like a servant & insisted on washing their feet, he talked about his imminent betrayal by one of them present in the room, and then tells them “where I am going you cannot come” (John 13:33).
So the explanation in 14:2 of where & why he's going, and what it will mean for them, is much needed. I could paraphrase it as ‘Don't worry, you can believe me, I'm not abandoning you. I'm going to prepare a place for you in my father's house so you can live with me.’
But I found the translation ‘mansions’ still niggled me, so I looked the word up in Strong’s Concordance and found that the Greek word they are translating is only used twice in the new testament, which makes sense since it's talking about the realm of God. It's also specific to this chapter, the second incidence being in John 14 verse 23, here it's translated 'abode'.
It's still Jesus talking, and he's explaining how the Father & Son make their abode in those that love God. Not surprisingly John (who describes himself as the disciple Jesus loved) is the one who takes time to record Jesus' explanation of this love extending from the Father, and what it means for those that love in return: both the indwelling of Jesus and the Father through the Spirit now, and an eternal living place with Jesus that he is preparing.
That word 'preparing' is also significant here. It implies focus, attention to detail, a heart for the recipient and a great deal of anticipation. I think of decorating a nursery for a baby's arrival.
The idea of preparing for a baby’s arrival ties me back in with the song that set me off down this train of thought in the first place: ‘I'm a child of God, yes I am!’ But in this case the Father already knows everything about his children: our hopes and needs (Matthew 6:8), our heart's desires (Psalm 38:9, 37:4), even the number of hairs on our heads (Luke 12:7)!
As children of God, our abode is being tailor-made!
Have a wonderful week imagining what delights are in store in a place prepared by Jesus for you!
