1 Jesus said to his disciples, “Don’t be worried! Have faith in God and have faith in me. 2 There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I wouldn’t tell you this, unless it was true. I am going there to prepare a place for each of you. 3 After I have done this, I will come back and take you with me. Then we will be together. 4 You know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t even know where you are going! How can we know the way?”
6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life!” Jesus answered. “Without me, no one can go to the Father. 7 If you had known me, you would have known the Father. But from now on, you do know him, and you have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.”
9 Jesus replied:
Philip, I have been with you for a long time. Don’t you know who I am? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. How can you ask me to show you the Father? 10 Don’t you believe that I am one with the Father and that the Father is one with me? What I say isn’t said on my own. The Father who lives in me does these things.
11 Have faith in me when I say that the Father is one with me and that I am one with the Father. Or else have faith in me simply because of the things I do. 12 I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me, you will do the same things that I am doing. You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father. 13 Ask me, and I will do whatever you ask. This way the Son will bring honor to the Father. 14 I will do whatever you ask me to do.
Read John 14:1-14 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
In today’s journal entry, I want to shine light on an easy-to-miss idea that even the disciples didn’t seem to pick up on, or if they did pick up on it, other things drew their focus away from the amazing significance of this one simple idea, which is found in verse 2:
“. . . I am going there to prepare a place for each of you.” (v. 2b)
What is absolutely amazing about this simple idea is that Jesus (i.e. God) is preparing a place for you and for me.
If you have ever looked up at the stars and imagined how big the universe is, or if you have ever heard scientists or astronomers talk about the size of the universe, you know that we are at most, a tiny speck living on a tiny speck in a massively huge universe.
With this frame of mind, let’s place this idea next to Jesus (God’s Son) leaving heaven, which is either outside of, or on the other side of, the universe. And what place does Jesus choose to come? He comes to this earth, as a human, just to restore a relationship with us. This is one unreal thought.
Then place these two ideas next to the promise Jesus gives in the verse.
God loves us so much that Jesus came to restore our relationship. Now, He is up in heaven preparing a place for you and me. When everything is ready, He’ll return and bring us to Him.
That idea is amazing, and it seems as though the disciples either miss it, or they discount it while trying to understand where exactly Jesus is going.
What about you?
Are you going to accept Jesus’ gift of a restored relationship with God and a room in His Father’s house?
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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