A perfect home

Submitted by RR on Fri, 19/03/2021 - 13:56

Once my house had been put on the market, and people had started coming to view, the need to find a new home became more pressing. But although, on paper, houses sounded attractive enough, actually visiting them was a bit of an anti-climax. The kitchen was too small, or the layout just didn’t seem right, or the garden had too much concrete and not enough soil, or there was just too much work required.

How glad I am to know that my eternal home won’t be a disappointment! For one thing, it will be perfectly prepared for me: Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:1-2)

For another, I will be perfectly prepared for it: ...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

Best of all, my Saviour will welcome me there: And 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. (John 14:3)

THRESHOLD OF HEAVEN

Do not ask me not to speak

About this journey I shall take,

‘Tis but a step and then my eyes

Shall open to the great surprise

He has prepared. Do you recall?

At Christmastime when we were small,

Our rapture and our eagerness,

And how we always tried to guess

What gifts our mother’s hands had made?

Dear memories that will not fade!

Don’t you remember, half our fun

Was in anticipation!

And then at last the open door,

A breathless pause, a rush, and there

Beneath the tree our gifts were laid,

The gifts our mother’s hands had made!

So at His threshold now I pause,

And ask you not to grieve because

I go into His other room.

Surely He would have me come

With eager wonder in my eyes

To see at last what rich surprise

The loving hands of our dear Lord

Made for His own. Ear has not heard,

Eye has not seen, nor can the mind

Obscurely guess what we shall find

Beyond that opened door. And so,

I pray that you will let me go,

Will loose love’s last restraining bands,

A hush… a light… and lo, His hands

Have unveiled glory in a breath!

O gifts undreamed of… brought by death!

Martha Snell Nicholson

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth, and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27)

My Jesus I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;

For Thee all the pleasures of sin I resign;

My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

I love Thee because Thou hast first lovèd me,

And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree;

I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

I will love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,

And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;

And say, when the death-dew lies cold on my brow,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.