by Charles Sibthorpe
We have just returned from Cornwall, where we had a wonderful Service of Thanksgiving for the life of my mother Mary Sibthorpe. We rejoiced over 98 years of God’s faithfulness and laid her precious body in the ground in the same grave we had buried my father seven years earlier. She was at peace and she was “at home.”
“At home”, united with those she has loved, but the most important person in that home is Jesus. We can live in a perfectly designed “Ideal Home”, but it is sterile unless we are sharing it with the people who we love the most.
The disciples were greatly distressed when Jesus told them he was going to die and be separated from them. As he spoke words of comfort he said, “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 14:3) Sometimes we think about the splendour of the mansions that are being prepared in heaven, however, the only reason for wanting to live there is because of the person we are going to live with. My mother has gone “to be with Jesus, which is better by far.” (Philippians 1:23)
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) His mission on earth was to pave the way to a better home. Those who don’t find the way are described as, “without hope and without God.” (Ephesians 2:12)
Last Sunday I preached about our home in “Heaven” – a place where, “the mortal is swallowed up by life, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore, where we are united with Jesus and the Father, where every tear is wiped away and there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain.”
To be “At Home” is to be with Jesus – is that your final destination?
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