REFLECTIONS

House of Many Rooms

Life once thrived in the little town of Capernaum where Jesus once called home; and life once flourished in the home that sat in ruins before me that day. People had lived there. The ruins of the home flooded my imagination with pictures of life as it once was there. The outer walls bounded a maze of rooms where sounds of laughter had echoed, tears of sorrow had flowed, and the air warmed by love. And my mind created an image of a young man, looking into the eyes of his chosen bride and saying, “In my father’s house are many rooms. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

Family life was close back then. Not only were relationships close, but they lived together even as adult children. As a boy became a man and prepared to take a wife, his first obligation was to prepare a place for his bride. Home additions were the in thing. Adding rooms to the homestead of his parents was the order of the day. After the marriage ceremony it was the place he would take his bride to make their home. So over the course of years, many rooms might be added to meet the needs of the growing family.

The scene before me led me to recall the site of a present-day Jordanian home we had seen a few days earlier in our travels. The ground floor was complete and occupied; but on the roof, pillars with rebar extending from them marked the beginnings of a foundation for a second story to be added. There was a wedding planned.  In his father’s house, a groom is preparing a place for his bride, a place they will one day call home.

Then my thoughts shifted to the scene of our Lord’s last meal with his disciples. There Jesus washed their feet, and began to prepare them for the impending events. He told of the betrayal by one of them, and of their denial of him. And with the grim prospects he described, He offered them comfort just as a groom would console his bride.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. 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 may also be where I am.”

Finally my imagination captured a scene as it might be in heaven—God’s family living together while Jesus, the builder, adds more rooms to his Father’s house. It is a house of many rooms.

Jesus has prepared one of them for you—a place to one day call Home.

 You are the light of the world,

Richard+

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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