A heavenly homecoming

Oct

This morning I was asked to deliver a five minute Bible talk at very short notice. I was up for the challenge and while I was preparing the talk, which was a re-hash of my homecoming blog post, I was struck by an exciting thought!

The thought related to a more profound meaning of the word “homecoming”. When I was a child in England, I remember telling my friends that my best friend was Jesus. This was not true. I knew that he was important but I had no relationship with Him, beyond singing a few hymns and scripted prayers on Sunday. Another of my pet statements was that I was going to Heaven when I died. We all assumed that this was our right, a natural part of being a human being. My friends and I were not inspired to find out more about Jesus. It sufficed that He offered us the all important ticket to Heaven. I now realize that this “ticket” was not like a free ticket to the fair, rather it cost Jesus His life for Him to offer it to me, and unless I gave my life to Him I was not going to the heavenly destination. Heaven is way more important than the fair or even a refreshing rest. It is a true homecoming.

In my post about the homecoming parade at our local high school, I described the effort that some of the kids went to to stick scrunched up pieces of tissue on the float to make the float attractive. Originally homecoming was to welcome back alumni of the school. There is still some of that but the parade is watched mostly by the school and some parents. The kids shout and cheer and the occasion is fun. In the evening at the homecoming football match the four floats, made by the different year groups, were displayed and they were ranked first, second, third and fourth. The tissue scrunching kids go to all that effort to be applauded by their classmates, some parents, and alumni, with the possibility of winning a prize.

The process of those who added the tissue to the float is a bit like the typical person working hard to live a productive life. I am sure that those kids worked late to finish the job, there was so much to do. It is likely that they received some encouragement but if they did not win the prize the process may have seemed ultimately unfulfilling. Isn’t that like our lives. We wonder what the point is as we work late and struggle to do the equivalent of sticking yet more tissue on the float.

Our lives can be more than trying to receive the praise of others and winning a temporary prize. We may be popular at school or receive an academic scholarship or become the heroic saleswoman in the company or even the super mother, but deep inside we know that these are not enough. Jesus says that he will give us life to the full. As we receive His love and His Holy Spirit we will change. Our goals will change and we will stop doing things just to receive praise from other people but instead our focus will alter and we will focus on pleasing Jesus.

Christ knows that we cannot go to Heaven just as we are. However much we try, we are not good enough to join Him in Heaven. We are naturally self centered and our hard work sticking tissue or the equivalent is not ultimately going to cut it. Without Jesus’s intervention no one will win the best prize. We are too bad and we need Jesus’s forgiveness and his life giving Spirit. In John 4:14, Jesus says to a wretched woman who had had numerous failed relationships: “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The prize is everlasting life, starting now and culminating in Heaven, and it is a gift that only Jesus can give.

In John 14 Jesus talks about Jesus and God, in the form of the invisible Holy Spirit making their home with those who love Jesus and obey His Word (the Bible). To have eternal godly purpose we need God’s presence now. This relationship now will lead us to our forever home. Jesus rose from the dead and we too can spiritually bypass the finality of death if we are truly his children. In John 14 verse 1, Jesus says “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and also trust in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 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.”

Only Jesus can secure our final homecoming because He is God. He came to earth in the form of a man; how else could he have died in our place? Only Jesus the perfect man could take the punishment that I deserve: death. That is why Jesus could say “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” I do hope that you will follow Jesus and discover a life that is fulfilling and will last forever, thanks to Him.

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