TAKEN HOME

3 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.
John 14:3 (NIV)

Do you ever long for home? Let's face it, there are days when life is a battle. You find yourself trudging on a seemingly endless uphill climb—the dust of the world gets in your eyes until you can’t seem to see where the next step is. Your heart cries out for Home of the Heavenly kind.
As I was thinking these “home” thoughts I was reminded of my daughter who just three months ago gave birth to her first child. Lillian was three weeks early and as a precaution the doctor kept the two of them in the hospital for four days. She sat in the hospital while her husband Mike finished preparations for their homecoming.
Lillian's hospital home was a mixture of warmth and coldness. One moment she was swaddled in blankets and the next she was exposed and being subjected to more poking and prodding and needles and seemingly endless tests. The hospital was where Lillian was born and was all she had known since taking her first breath, but it was not her real home.
I wondered if her daddy comforted her with words and assurances that she would not be in that place forever. Did he paint a word picture of home? At the end of a test did he hold her near as she cried and whisper words of assurance that soon he would come and take her home? When Elizabeth felt as though she would never see home, did he remind her that the hospital dwelling place was only temporary? Did he whisper in the darkness of night that they belonged to him and soon he would come and take them home to be with him?
As I sat pondering, He whom my soul longs for arrived in the stillness and reminded me of words of assurance He spoke to His disciples. 3 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.
John 14:3 (NIV)
The words stirred on the page and I thought again about my daughter and Lillian when they were in the hospital. I remembered well the day Elizabeth called to tell me that they were going home. I could hear the joy in her voice as she told me the news.
“Who went to get them?” He asked.
The question startled me as I replied, “Mike did.”
“Why did he go? He could have sent someone to pick them up for him,” He said.
My heart looked up in surprise as I said, “They are his family so of course he went himself.”
“They belong to him?” He asked.

“Yes,” I replied as my imagination peered back to the day Mike arrived at the hospital. In my mind’s eye I could see his eyes dancing as he gathered up his precious wife and daughter to take them home.

“Why did he take them home?” He asked.

“Because he loved them and wanted them with him at home,” I finished.
The sun wasn’t up quite yet, but the eastern sky was beginning to stir as His voice poured through my soul like a thousand waterfalls. “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.”

My heart nestled at His feet as His words took root in my heart. I thought about how this world is where I was born and is a mixture of hot and cold. One minute I am wrapped snugly in the knowledge and confidence of belonging to the Lord and the next the hands of this world have pulled the blanket away and I am being poked and prodded and seemingly undergoing endless testing until my heart cries out for home of the heavenly kind.

In the darkness I hear familiar steps and He wraps me in His arms—the everlasting ones, and whispers, “Daughter, you belong to me. I am preparing a place for you. And if I am preparing a place for you, I will come back for you. I won’t send a taxi or a band of angels or anyone else. I WILL come and take you so that you may be with Me where I am.”
As the mountains stood tall in the western sky, their peeks blushing pink as the sun touched them with the light of a new day, I wondered if today would be the day He would come for me. I left my place at the Well filled with thoughts of home of the heavenly kind, and the One who would come Himself to take me there because I belong to Him.

So as you walk through your day, your heart watching for Him expectantly; your ears listening for His voice and the sound of His footsteps, remember His promise to those who belong to Him. He said He would come and take you… I love that. It is hands on and personal. He didn’t say He would send someone to get you. He won’t just give you directions or tell you what to put into your GPS. No. He promised that He would come Himself. He promised He would take you Himself. If you are feeling poked and prodded and overwhelmed by seemingly endless tests of this world, remember His words. Remember His promise to you. Look up because today could be the day He comes for you, to take you with Him to the place He has prepared for you: Home!
An Original Conversations at the Well
© copyright by Diana Morgan, June 9, 2012