"Trust me," Jesus says in John 14. And right after that: "There is plenty of room for you in my father's house."
I often long for a room of my own. But even better than having my own room in our apartment, is a private room with God. Jesus promises me that there will be enough space for me. A place to settle down, rest, grow and praise. It will not be like in a refugee camp. -Even if that were ok! After all, we will be in heaven and happy to be there, even if it were overcrowded. The main thing is to be saved! But Jesus promises us more than just being saved. He offers us a real home. A nicer one than we can dream of. A home that meets all our needs for security and freedom. He even went ahead personally to prepare it for us. Jesus himself plans our room and sets it up for us!
I would love to have a large panoramic window with a gigantic view, a comfortable armchair and an open fireplace that you don't have to clean. But who knows what Jesus is preparing for me? Maybe I even get a treehouse in the jungle and a dragon with which I can fly? But even my wildest dreams will be surpassed because I am allowed to live there with Jesus!
And He has also promised that He will come back to get us there. We do not have to look for the right way ourselves and be afraid to get lost. Jesus is the way.
How often I do not know where and how to go! I do not have an overview of my life, no bird's eye view. But that's ok. I hold on to Jesus and trust him.
He is also the truth when I do not know what to believe. And there are so many lies in our lives! You are a nobody. You will never learn it. You always make the same mistakes. It's your fault that no one likes you. All lies! Jesus loves me unconditionally. He lives in me. I'm someone. He makes my heart grow and heal, and He can do great things through me! That is the truth!
And Jesus is life. My life. Real life. Everything else, the worldly things, are short-lived. All the things in my apartment, the money on my savings book, these are just current realities. I will not take any of this to my new room with Jesus. I don't want to! There's a lot better there! This view of my new home puts many things in place. It helps me let go of things.
No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. "I belong to him!" I can say if anyone asks what I'm doing there. But no one will. Because I arrive not as a refugee who has to ask for asylum, but as a beloved child, washed clean, even as a priestess.
All the words of Jesus are not just words he has devised. They are God's words, words with creative power: what God speaks is happening. In him, speech and doing are one and the same reality. What a power! And these words also work in us. I am God's beloved child because He said it. I trust that. Even when sometimes I don't feel that way and I have to remind my heart that it is true. I trust God more than my own thoughts. And in that trust I grow beyond myself. Because God's reality is greater than my own.
I will follow in his footsteps, on the path that he is. Now I know where this path leads to. Although I don't know what it actually looks like there. But I trust his taste!
(This reminds me of our optician Georg: all four wearers of glasses in our family now trust him blindly when it comes to choosing a frame of glasses. That's why we decided to take what he chooses for us instead of trying out for an hour what else is there. His recommendation, what he chose for us, has always been the best!
And Jesus is certainly much better than Georg! Not to mention his possibilities!)
"Eyes upward, feet forward and hearts homeward."
(from a Navajo Indian legend)
Jesus says: "I am the way and the truth and the life." John 14:6
I´ve followed him closely, my feet in his footprints, not once swerving from his way. Hiob 23:11
I´ll say to Nobody, "You´re my dear Somebody", and he´ll say "You´re my God!" Hosea 2:23