Devotions by Rachel

Devotional #3 – Our eternal home On my 22nd birthday, I could feel my body shutting down and knew I may die. The doctors knew it too. I had been in a car accident a year earlier which resulted in a Traumatic Brain Injury. I later found out I also had a neurological disease, Chronic Lyme disease. I was ready to go be with God if that’s where He was taking me. I did not think God owed me a long life on Earth. I was just amazed that He died on the cross so I could spend eternity with Him. People die all around the world at all ages. Why would I feel like I was entitled to 80 years on Earth? Just getting to live is a gift. I think that because I faced death at a younger age than some, every year I lived after that felt like a gift.

Recently, one of my friends told me that his dad sold his house and was living with his grown sons until he found a place of his own. Staying with his sons was just an in-between phase that would probably only last a few weeks until he found a place of his own. I imagine staying on your sons’ couch is not ideal or where you want to live forever. If the dad tries to make the most of his time staying with his sons, that is great! But if for some reason the dad became really caught up with his residence on that couch it would seem silly because he’s only there a short time before he gets to his new house. That’s kind of how life on Earth is before we go home to heaven. If you’ve accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, he is preparing a mansion for you in Heaven. It’s hard for us to think of life this way because the world wants us focused on our lives here. Human beings are obsessed with extending life. Some people are trying to work on living forever here on Earth. Jesus said Satan is the prince of the world. Why would I want to live forever in a world where Satan is the prince? I want to spread light on this world so more people escape Satan’s grasp and can live in heaven forever where God is King. John 14: 1-7 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that 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. You know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.’”