PREPARING

Yesterday I spent the afternoon doing some homework and research. I've been trying to stay ahead of the game with decisions I know I will eventually have to make. Things like...What color will I paint the living room, the kitchen or the bedrooms? What kind of light fixture will I hang in the foyer, the dining room, the hallways? What kind of tile will I use in the master bath or the kitchen floor? It's a big house with many rooms. I need to be prepared.

So I set out with a list of stores to visit and a clipboard for note taking. I also took my sample of granite that will be the kitchen counter and a sample of the wood that the kitchen cabinets are being made of. The more I looked at paint samples the more they all began to look the same. Finally, I simply told myself to decide! I found it best to pick about 4 or 5 colors that coordinate in a color scheme and simply use them throughout the house. There are 20 different rooms/areas in the house and there is no way I want to choose that many different colors. By using the 5 colors wisely, I can make all those rooms flow together and feel cohesive. For me, this is the fun part of caring for the house. It's fun to lay it all out on the table and put all the pieces together.

Jesus also said that He is preparing a place for us. I looked this up...John 14:2, 3. He told us not to be troubled or concerned, but to trust Him. "In my Father's house are many rooms...I am going to prepare a place for you." This thought intrigued me. God's house has many rooms and He is preparing a place just for me! "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." He wants me to be with him; to live with him.

I looked this up in a commentary..."The universe is the dwelling-place of my Father. All is his house. Whether on earth or in heaven, we are still in his habitation. In that vast abode of God there are many mansions. The earth is one of them, heaven is another. Whether here or there, we are still in the house, one of the mansions of our Father, in one of the apartments of his vast abode. We ought to continually rejoice that we are permitted to occupy any part of his dwelling-place. And it shouldn't matter whether we are in this mansion or another. We shouldn't grieve if we are called to pass from one part of this vast habitation of God to another. Jesus shall still be in the same universal habitation with us; still in the house of the same God; Jesus is going for an important purpose - to fit up another abode for our eternal dwelling."

The mansions and rooms being prepared for us are going to beautiful and colorful. What we are given on earth is only a sampling of something much more amazing. (see Revelations 21:15-27)

Thank you, Father, for preparing a place just for me. Your desire for me to live forever with you is. . . hmmmm. . . What a wonderful loving Father God!