Hubby and I have just recently purchased a condo … so that we can move our aging parents to be near us, so that we can help care for them going forward.
Did you know that the Bible speaks to this exact situation of moving aging parents to be closer in order to help care for them?
Right in the middle of hubby and I trying to figure out what we should do, I “just so happened” to listen to an online sermon, and it “just so happened” to be from Genesis 46:1-3. In this section of Scripture, Joseph (far away down in Egypt) has sent carts and wagons in order to move his aging father, Jacob, to be closer to him to help care for him.
Jacob is having to let go of everything he has ever known and leave his land which is home. He is having to move far away to a completely different land which is unknown and foreign to him.
Naturally, Jacob would be fearful.
Naturally there would be a turmoil of emotions in uprooting like this.
In Genesis 46:1-3 we see God appear to Jacob in a vision at night and tell Jacob not to be afraid. God encourages Jacob that this is a good thing, and that this is His will for Jacob.
“And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, ‘Jacob! Jacob!’
‘Here I am,’ he replied.
‘I am God, the God of your father,’ he said. ‘Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt … I will go down to Egypt with you …’”
As hubby and I are sorting through the purchase of the condo for our aging parents, and the logistics of getting them moved to our city and into the condo, and the logistics of getting their house sold, etc. … it reminds me a lot of God’s promise to prepare a place for us.
Jesus said: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s 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 may be where I am.” – John 14:1-3
Our aging parents have not personally, physically, seen the condo which hubby and I have just recently purchased for them. They have an idea of what it is like via photos we have shared with them. But they don’t 100% know exactly what it is like.
When it comes to our forever eternal home in heaven, we have an idea what it will be like. God has given us “snapshots” (so to speak) in his Word (the Bible). But we don’t 100% know exactly what Heaven will be like.
It reminds me of the verse: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully.” – 1 Corinthians 13:12
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” – 1 Corinthians 2:9
Hubby and I will be very busy these next few weeks “preparing a place” for our aging parents. We are planning to do a bit of painting. We are going to get some items for the condo which will make it homey for them.
We are working to coordinate the move in such a way that it will be the least disruptive for our parents.
Our parents don’t know what the place is like, or all the preparations which hubby and I are doing … but they simply rest and trust that we are taking care of them. They rest and trust in our love for them. They rest and trust that their “place prepared” will be wonderful.
This right here is what it is like to be a follower of Jesus Christ and to rest and trust that Jesus is preparing a wonderful place for us in heaven! We rest and trust that Jesus is going to take good care of us! We rest and trust in Jesus’s love for us! We rest and trust that our “place prepared” is going to be far more amazing than we could ever imagine!
Just like hubby and I will be coming soon to get our aging parents and bring them to their new home to be near us … so also, Jesus Christ will be coming soon to get those of us who love & follow him to take us to be with him in our new home in heaven.
“They will see the Son of Man [this is Jesus!] coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” – Matthew 24:30-31
“Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, … ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’” – Revelation 1:7-8
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
“This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” – Acts 1:11
“I go to prepare a place for you … “
