There is nothing like arriving at someone's home and feeling welcome and expected. It is really special to know that someone prepared for you to arrive to visit them. Knowing someone has prepared for and been expecting you makes you feel loved, appreciated, and special. We all want to experience this feeling of being loved and expected. This does not only apply to people in our lives expecting us; it also applies to being prepared for by God. Did you know that when it comes to heaven, Jesus promised His followers that when He returned to heaven, He would prepare a place for them?
We read in John 14 about some of Jesus' last moments with His disciples before His death. As He shared a meal with them, He said, "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" (verses 2-3). Knowing His death was imminent, it was important to Jesus that His disciples knew that He would be preparing for them to join Him in heaven. What comfort this must have brought His disciples after His death! Because of this teaching from Jesus, His disciples could live with the comfort that Jesus was expecting them and even preparing for the day they would join Him in heaven.
Jesus' teaching in John 14 is true for you today, too. Jesus is preparing a place for each one of His followers in Heaven. If you have placed your faith in Him, this includes you. He's preparing for you and awaiting the day when you are with Him forever, just as He is for all of those who are following Him. The day that we meet Him face-to-face and join Him in heaven will be the greatest day, but we can live with the hope and confidence that He is getting ready for us until then. When the time comes, He will welcome us better than any person has ever welcomed us before.
How precious is it that Jesus is preparing for you in Heaven! You are loved, valued, wanted, and cared for. As you meditate on this fact, say a prayer of thanksgiving. Thank God for making room for all who have placed their faith in Him, including you. Thank Him for preparing for you to live with Him forever.
“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. And you know the way to where I am going.”
“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.
“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!
