“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:2-6
Jesus creates a sense of family when He speaks of God as Father, not Master, not Lord, not even Friend, but Father. He taught His disciples to pray to the Father. He was always pointing them to the Father declaring that no one goes to the Father except through Him. He went ahead to prepare a place for them in His Father’s house. This was a different type of house as it had many dwelling places. Some versions of the Bible say there are many rooms in the house. I don’t think they quite get the idea of many dwelling places or mansions in the Father’s house though. Afterall, how can a mansion be in a house? But we must bever forget this is the Heavenly Father’s kingdom, where earthly rules don’t apply. We are always trying to comprehend God and His ways with our limited understanding, but we would be wise not to lean on our own understanding, because this is faulty underpinning. For us to have knowledge about God the Father, we must look to Jesus, the Son, who does what the Father does. And what Jesus does is take care of the needy and disenfranchised of society.
A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. Psalm 68:5-6
God the Father loves us so much that He calls us His children. When we believe in Him and Jesus, we are then adopted in His family, and we are bonded by the blood of Jesus and through faith we are all children of God. And the Father takes care of His children. Unfortunately, we may view our Heavenly Father through our experiences with earthly fathers. Many children grow up without a father in the home, so it is sometimes difficult to have a concept of God the Father who is always there, ready to protect them and provide for them. To them, God the Father may seem distant like many human fathers, but He isn’t. He is always watching over His children, and He can be trusted even when it is hard to understand His ways.
And said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3
God wants us to have the simple faith of a child trusting in Him, our Heavenly Daddy, who knows everything about us and has the future in His hands. Unfortunately, many earthly papas have lost the trust of their children and so it becomes difficult to see God has a trustworthy Father. I think overtime seeing God as a good Father is developed after experiencing His care over and over again.
I know for me as I look back over the years, I see how God has had His powerful hands on my life directing me through some challenging periods. I can see now how He has been protective of me. There was a time, I could know there were people speaking unjust things about me because I could feel God caring for me and providing for me even more. Later, I would find out that truly people were speaking lies about me. I have seen Him take me out of certain situations and relationships that I thought were good and I would sometimes get upset with Him because of the painful process of separating. But after, in hindsight I can see how God used those temporary hurts to save me from a lot of harm. God the Father is good, and He knows best. He puts the lonely in families and takes care of the fatherless. The great thing about God is that His house is a home where we can run to Him at any time and know He is there for us, His children. We can tell Him anything that is on our hearts and He always has a listening ear. He will always have time to spend with us and He loves it when we are in His presence. It is good to be in My Father’s house.
I will end with this quote from Oswald Chambers.
Our Lord’s childhood wasn’t immature adulthood. His childhood is an eternal fact, the permanent state of his relationship to his Father. Am I so identified with my Lord and Savior that I, too, am a holy, innocent child of God? Do I look upon life as a permanent state of dwelling in my Father’s house? Is the Son of God dwelling in his Father’s house inside me?
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