Monday, May 4, 2015
Job 19:25a I know that my Redeemer lives …
HE LIVES MY MANSION TO PREPARE
I've always dreamed of building my own house. I've even drawn up some basic floor plans. It's a simple little house, where I imagine my wife and I spending our golden years together.
Will my dream come true? Maybe. But if I ever do build my dream house, how long will I live in it? I'm sure it won’t be for more than a decade or two. Death will darken its door soon enough, as it has every home since Adam's fall.
Will it be a happy home? I pray so. But my sinful nature will certainly bring more than enough unhappiness into it. There will be days when Satan will make a big mess of things.
Will my little house stand secure until the end of time? Nothing is permanent in this world. One day, if the world endures for much longer, my house will be buried beneath the wreck and ruin of this present evil age.
That's why I'm really looking forward to living in a home where death cannot enter. A home where no unkind word is ever spoken. A home beyond the reach of change and decay. It's my home in heaven.
The possibility of living in this home is far more than a wishful dream. My heavenly home has already been bought and paid for, the deed's been signed over to me by the blood of my Savior. Nor is it a house that I could ever begin to build on my own. All my labor could ever do is earn for me a permanent place in hell. Jesus alone built my home above. He did it with the wood of His cross and the solid stone of His empty tomb. It's a house that will last forever, for the Lord Himself has prepared it for me.
It's nice to have dreams, but how much better to know for sure that there's a place in heaven waiting just for you. Let's you and I tell friends and neighbors of our dream come true:
He lives and grants me daily breath;
He lives, and I shall conquer death;
He lives my mansion to prepare;
He lives to bring me safely there.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 200:7)
