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)
This is Jesus’ last teaching to His disciples before His crucifixion. They were about to go through the greatest test of their faith, and He was preparing them for what was to come. Why speak of preparing them a mansion in heaven? He wanted to comfort them and help them put things in perspective. In [simple_tooltip content=’16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.’]1 Thessalonians 4:16-18[/simple_tooltip], Paul tells us to comfort one another with words about being gathered unto the Lord in the air. Paul said again, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:18). Someday, all of our trials will seem like nothing, and this can be a great comfort to us now.
When we think about being with the Lord throughout eternity, it helps us to put our present problems in proper perspective. It is easy to get fearful about our troubles and think all is lost. However, for those of us who are born again, if worse comes to worse, we still have the promise of Jesus wiping all the tears from our eyes and preparing a habitation for us where all our former sorrows will have passed away. This keeps us from despairing and inspires us to keep going in faith.
In heaven there are many dwelling places, and Jesus is preparing a special one for you. The thing that is going to make heaven “heaven” is that you will be with Him. No doubt, there will be things to see and do that will be wonderful, but nothing will compare to being with the One who loves you and died for you.
