The Carpenter

John 14:1-3
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 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.”

People keep asking how we are doing. They ask if we are feeling anxious, displaced or unsettled while we are waiting for our house to be repaired.

Honestly?

No.

Erik and I are in agreement that we feel very….indifferent.

The other day Hannah was sprawled across a chair and she looked at us and said, “You know, this place (the river house) kind of feels like home.”

What followed was a great conversation with the older three kiddos about what makes a house a home, it’s the people not the stuff and the fact that our REAL home is in Heaven with God and everything good about our earthly abodes is but a shadow of what God has for us there.

Last week I finished reading “In Light of Eternity” by Randy Alcorn and just started his book “Heaven”.

Oh my.

My brain and heart are reeling in anticipation and joy for THAT home.

The thought that has been delighting me this morning though is very simple. Maybe it’s because I’m married to a carpenter…

Jesus, when he walked on this earth, was a carpenter. I never really thought about that being an intentional occupational design. Oh sure I’ve heard so many sermon illustrations about the Master Carpenter etc. and I know that he is the ultimate Creator and Architect of the Universe but I’ve always heard the carpenter part spiritualized and it‘s never hit me that, “He knows how to build”, in the physical, practical description of a carpenter.

In “In Light of Eternity”, in the chapter titled “He Knows How to Build” Randy Alcorn has this to say:

“I imagine our first glimpse of heaven will cause us to gasp in amazement and delight. The first gasp is likely to be followed by many more as we continually encounter new sights in that endlessly wonderful place.
…
Why will heaven be so beautiful and wonderful? Because the One who’s prepared it for us is so skillful and creative.
Knowing our children were coming, Nanci and I prepared a place for them. We chose the room, picked out the right wallpaper, decorated and set up the crib just so, selected the perfect blankets. The quality of the place we prepared for our daughters was limited only by our skills and resources and imaginations.
Since our Lord isn’t limited in any of those categories, and since he loves us even more than we love our children, what kind of place can we expect him to have prepared for us? It will simply be the best place ever made by anyone and for anyone.
…
Our home is being built for us by the Carpenter from Nazareth. Building is his trade. A good carpenter envisions what he wants to build. He plans and designs. Then he does his work, carefully and skillfully fashioning it to exact specifications. He takes pride in the work he’s done and delights to show it to others. And when it’s his own children or his bride he’s made it for, he takes special delight.”

Sure, I’m excited to move back into the home we own here on earth. I’m even more excited to sell it and start construction on a new home. A home, as I’ve said before, that we pray to use to bless others; to invite in and hopefully show others a tiny glimpse of heaven through the joy of home and rest.
But really, I’m looking forward to a country and a home who’s architect and builder is God, just like Abraham and all those others mentioned in Hebrews 11.

“For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. … All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:10 & 13-16