Staging Heaven

We are selling our house.  Our realtor had recommended having it staged.  Staging means someone comes in and tells you what changes you need to make to your home to make it salable.  For us, that meant painting most of the house, redoing the counter-tops and  taking out a lot of the furnishings, decorating, and furniture that made it our home.  It feels like we are not living in a home that is not really ours.  Gone are the pictures, the books, and half the furniture.  The other half of the furniture has been moved around to where it feels like we are living in a model home, which is exactly the idea.  The memories will always remain, but the physical existence of this house is now in the process of being removed.  I loved this home for 10 years, but now soon it will no longer be our home.  I can't take it with me.  We are moving on. 

As a Christian, we are simply visiting this earthly home.  Some of us will be visiting a short time and others of us a long time.  But all the time on this earth pales by comparison to eternity.  We are sojourning on this planet.  Psalm 84 says "How lovely is your dwelling place O Lord Almighty!  My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God."  This song is the song of the pilgrim.  Don't get too comfortable on this planet.  You are a pilgrim.

Heaven is being staged for me right now. My home is in heaven and while I like home here, my true home is in heaven.  The home Jesus is preparing for me is a mansion with many rooms (John 14:1-3).  He says "Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Fathers house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also will be where I am."  Unlike my stagers however, this home in heaven is uniquely being prepared for me.  Note the use of personal pronouns - "for me".  The stagers have no idea who will be living in this house when it sells, but Jesus does.  And He is preparing a unique place.  It will be home and we will never move out.

Secondly, it isn't just a place.  Our house was not a home without people.  It became a home when our family dwelled within it.  Our three daughters grew up here.  We have tons of memories here which made it a home.  Heaven will not be a home without Jesus and His worshippers.

Finally, the picture is that the present ain't so hot but we are just visiting.  The picture is that we simply aren't comfortable in this life.  This life is a staged house where things just aren't quite right.  There are lots of trials on this earth, but we can look forward to a truly "staged home" that we will forever enjoy.