My Place in Heaven

“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 also may be where I am.”  John 14:2-3 (NIV)

Today I was driving on the 50 Freeway.  As I crested the bridge over the Sacramento River, a song on the radio prompted a very vivid picture in my imagination.  I don’t even remember what song was on the radio because the picture was just so real.  It lasted only a few moments, just long enough for tears to begin welling up in eyes.  Then it was gone, my emotions relaxed, and I was left to meditate on what I had just seen.

The picture I had seen was this: I was sitting in a room in heaven, sitting across from Jesus, and we were talking.  Rather, we were just sitting there without saying anything at all because I couldn’t think of what I should say when the King of the Universe is sitting on the other end of the couch from me.  It just blew me away to contemplate what it will be like someday when I sit across from Jesus.

I think most of us read the scripture and start thinking of all the things we will have and experience in heaven.  We like the old translation of the scripture that suggests each of us will have a mansion to ourselves.  We imagine what the outside of the mansion will look like.  We count the number of interior rooms.  We consider what color we would like the curtains to be and what kind of cake will be ever-present in the kitchen.

What I realize as I mediate on the picture that flashed in my mind, is that most of us think about heaven as if it were little more than the American Dream.  We imagine heaven will be for us everything that we denied ourselves on Earth in order to follow Jesus.  We think of all the things we didn’t get to have here and assume that heaven will be a big make-up so we can finally have what we deserve.  I am now fully convinced that thinking that way completely misses the point of what Jesus was saying.  The point is that we will be with Jesus.  Look at the end of the scripture and see how it ends.  Perhaps my picture of heaven says more about the state of my heart that I wish it did.  What about you?

[PhotoCredit:Refractionless & Proper Dave]