“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”
John 14:1-3 (NLT)
The disciples were heading into a storm for which they should have been prepared. They weren’t. They had spent three years with Jesus traveling, ministering, teaching and witnessing Him do the things that only the Son of God could do. Now, they were only moments from the storm that would see them scatter in despair as Jesus was arrested, beaten and eventually crucified.
Jesus loved them and had diligently prepared them for the work that would be left for them to do once He was gone. On this particular night, they would begin to see the magnitude of Jesus’ mission and the conflict that would be part of their lives from this point forward. Why would Jesus spend these critical moments talking about a home? In a night that was to be filled with panic, fear and disillusionment, why would Jesus take the time to speak of that which would be so far beyond their emotional capacity to embrace? I believe it is because our moments of trauma eventually calm and we are left to rely upon what we know in our hearts to be true beyond the storms we may see.
I was faced with this reality just this week. Our students submit prayer requests to our board of directors each month. On their request sheet, there are places for basic personal information about them—Where’s home? How old are you? Do you have children? What are their ages? Etc. On one particular request sheet, a young mother of three began to write where her home was, scribbled it out, and wrote instead, “I’m not sure.” I was shaken by her honest appraisal of her situation even though she is a believer in Jesus Christ and she knows where her eternal home will be.
But, it is sometimes difficult to embrace eternal promises when our current condition is chaos. She is learning to do that. Aren’t we all? I am always amazed that the words of Jesus had the ability to speak to that hunger for hope in the most dire of circumstances. The peace He promised was not always intended to give us hope BEYOND this life, but instead, for the hurts and concerns for today. We may have a storm on our horizon. Our world may be shaken to its core. Isn’t it just like Jesus to remind us there He’s constantly looking out for our tomorrow as well as today?
We can be sure of what truly matters when circumstances tell us we can’t!