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Recently Carolyn and I were able to finish a 10 year project of building a house and moving in. This arduous experience got me thinking about how moving is like going to heaven. At least it seems that way in our experience.
At least we tried to keep smiling throughout our moving ordeal.
Let me explain.
Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:2-3 ESV)
These are words of immense encouragement. Jesus was talking about our eternal home, our heavenly home.
This world is not our home—we have a place of incredible joy awaiting us if we know Jesus. One day we will make that wonderful move.
Here’s how, for me, moving is like going to that new heavenly home:
01. Getting the new house built can seem like a very long process.
Because of the Mortgage Crisis of 2007 and the resulting “Great Recession,” no one would loan us money to build. So our property sat undeveloped for nearly 10 years.
Every year we had to pay taxes on the property and each May we had to mow it to reduce the fire hazard. Meanwhile it just sat there.
We were greatly frustrated by the delay, as you might imagine. It seemed that our new house would NEVER be built.
While I like to be in control, I found out that I was not at all in control. The mortgage crisis made getting a construction loan virtually impossible.
One mortgage company told us their new regulation was they would loan us the money if we had a million dollars cash in the bank! Duh. If we had that kind of cash, we wouldn’t need their loan!
Likewise, it often seems like a very long time for us to wait for heaven, especially when we are suffering. It might even seem like heaven will NEVER happen. But fear not, the time for moving to our heavenly home is coming some day.
02. Having a great contractor is delightful.
One of the wonderful things in our construction experience was that we found a great contractor: Frank Minicilli of Diversified Construction.
Frank has been a delight to work with and has exceeded our expectations. When we finally got our loan, he honored the bid he had submitted 8 years earlier with no cost increase! Amazing. And he consistently went beyond the call of duty.
Here’s even better news about our heavenly home: there is only one Contractor for heaven and He is far better than Frank. His name is Jesus Christ and He is the Heavenly Contractor who promised, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).
The passage goes on, “Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:5-6 ESV)
The only way to get a heavenly home is to set up a salvation contract with the Great Contractor, Jesus. Like Frank, He will honor that contract as long as it takes until you move to your heavenly home.
03. Move is a four letter word.
The worst part of our house building experience, besides waiting for a loan, was the move. After 28 years, our family of 5 had accumulated enough stuff to fill three 26 foot moving trucks. We did much of the moving ourselves and ended up saying, “We’ll never move again in our lives! Move is a four letter word!”
Early in our marriage we had a year in which we moved 3 times. But I guess we’ve gotten soft. We hated our latest moving experience.
In a similar way we have seen how difficult the move to the other side can be by watching our parents and other family member’s deaths. The most difficult was the slow, agonizing death of my stepmother Millie who had Alzheimer’s disease.
Thankfully, Millie knew Jesus and a heavenly home awaited her. While the earthly move was terrible, the home-going was out of this world!
As Christ-followers, we are able to say with the Apostle Paul, “Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’” (1 Corinthians 15:54 NLT)
04. It is wonderful to finally be moved in.
While our move was difficult, our new home is “heavenly.”
We were finally able to complete and move into our “dream home” last month. After 10 years of waiting and preparation, we have quite a feeling of accomplishment, completion and joy.
But as great as it moving in is, we know that our move to our forever home in heaven will be infinitely better than we can ever imagine!
For a description of how great our heavenly home will be, please see my article How I Made a Killing in Real Estate and You Can Too!
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