Houses Are Biblical Too

As I sit in Bottletree Bakery this morning, at this time of year, I am often reminded of the following quote by C.H. Spurgeon, “"Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon thee just now it will be very painful to thee; but there is comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectations: He scatterth the hoar-frost like ashes over the once verdant meadows of our joy. He casteth forth his ice like morsels freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all; he is the great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore thou canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills, are of the Lord's creating, and come to us with wise design."

I feel that when the weather provides little warmth to the world, the world provides little warmth to our own lives. It is far too easy to fall into a depression, being unproductive and wasting time during these winter months. I am from Mississippi, so I know that those further North know this far better than I. When I fall into these lulls, these depressing times where the hope of good things to come in my life is equivalent to the hope that I won’t have to wear a jacket to class, there are few things that I truly begin to long for that all happen to be rooted in one thing.

If it happens that those thoughts don’t resonate with you, the following will. At the beginning of this year I had a bad a feeling, a pit in the bottom of my stomach. Without fail, every few years there is tragedy that strikes in the lives of those we love. Deaths, sickness, the loss of a job, divorce, or inner turmoil are just a few overarching examples of this tragedy I speak of. There are those times where you can do nothing more than stop and say to yourself, “That is just not right.” When these things happen, there are many emotional remedies we conjure up, but again I would argue they are rooted in one thing.

When winter in the soul and tragedy storm into our lives there is only one thing we want, only one thing we long for. We want to go home.

There is no better feeling than pulling into your driveway after a long trip, a semester at college, or just a rough day. When you walk through those doors, have the smell of your home hit you, and drop your bags to the floor, you can’t help but relax your shoulders and have this peace about you that, “You know, everything is going to be okay.” There are home cooked meals that we long for, not because they are gourmet, five-star meals (though some of us may be so fortunate), but because you break bread with your family and it was produced from ‘your’ kitchen. Nobody makes a better supper than their own mom. There is a sense of love, a sense of vulnerability that comes with being home, and is not present during the tough times mentioned above.

The sense we get when we pull into our driveway is a small, minute feeling of what it will be like when the trump resounds and the Lord descends. And yes, it will be well with our souls. That feeling is Biblical. We all have a longing to go home when times are tough, and even when times are pleasant. Even so, we are hard-wired as Christians to have that same longing, though far greater, for an ultimate home, a heavenly home.

Just as your mother cleans your room for you, does your laundry, and may even have a happy waiting on you when you come home, Jesus is presently preparing our room in heaven for us, waiting for us to join him. Though this is not just a room. It is a mansion in our Father’s house. No that is not a typo: a mansion within a house. I think this is also why we all love it when somebody plans something for us, we don’t know what it is, and they toy with our sanity by saying, “I promise you will like it, I just can’t tell you.” Once that happens, our thoughts are consumed with what it could be, what it might be, and if this person might be. This sense of wonder produced by somebody else’s preparation of something for us is fascinating enough to think about for a long time, and let’s press on.

Often times I fantasize over my ‘dream home’. I know exactly what I want it to look like. Tall ceilings, hardwood floors, wraparound porch, back patio, and a lofted study are just a few of these things that I dub as ‘essentials’ or things that are ‘perfect’, in my mind, for my house (I know I am speaking vaguely, but am practicing Proverbs 4:23 by doing so). Houses are Biblical because I believe that God is preparing a perfect house for us all, a place for us to dwell and worship him. I love thinking about my ‘dream home’. For one, I am selfish like that, and two because I know that when I get to heaven that there will be something even more perfect there, and I will be like “Gah, that is right, that's perfect.” The creator who created me, knows me perfectly, is preparing a place, a ‘dream home’ of sorts, for me in heaven. That is exciting.

Different rooms in houses are simply different experiences in our lives that we get to explore, enjoy, rearrange, and dwell in. The rooms contribute to the house at large, add character, add smaller stories contributing to the larger story, and each have their respective function. This is applicable to our lives in so many ways.

I could go on forever, and I have details about why I think all of this is the case, and how it applies to our lives. I feel like I could write a book about this. I have only shared all the details of this with a number of people that I can count on one hand. There is a method to the madness of my mind. I have more, much more. If you were to put a cup of coffee in front of me and ask me about it sometime, you might regret doing so; I think about this a lot. The Bible is filled to the brim with images and themes surrounding and built upon houses.

I say all this in encouragement. It is okay to want to go home; in fact it is Biblical. The places in this world that we go to and know that everything is going to be all right, the places where we can let our guard down, the places we have this euphoric emotion about us when we are in route to them, are our homes, our earthly homes, our homes away from home (Alpine, Oxford, Chattanooga, 2206 North Cheryl Drive). The funny thing is, that one day they just may be our heavenly homes as well, once Christ comes and perfects his creation. There is something great about that, and something to take heart in.