February 20, 2019 – John 14:2

In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.
—John 14:2

If we were to think of every room in [the Father’s house] having its four enclosing walls, each would have its inscription written by God’s own hand.21
There are those who have often doubted their acceptance and forgiveness, who have walked in darkness and with difficulty stayed themselves on God, questioning whether they might not in the end be castaways; it stands inscribed, “Your many sins have been forgiven.”
There are those who have felt all through life as if God were turned to be their enemy and were fighting against them. Their desires have been thwarted, their hearts pierced through and through with losses and crosses and cruel wounds, and failure upon failure has followed their plans. But it is written, “The LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in,” and “In all things God works for the good of those who love him.”
And there are those who have yearnings of heart to feel God’s presence close and constant, to hear him and speak with him and be sure his is not, as some would say to them, a voice or a vision or a dream of their fond imagination. They have felt it at times so certain that they could say, “The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps. 27:1). But clouds roll in on the assurance, and the voice seems far off or silent, as if it were among the trees of the garden, and it is toward evening, and there is doubt and fear. But it shall be “like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth,” and his name shall be written as the “Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” And the one who reads it shall say, “You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.” Here is hope and aim for stricken spirits and solitary hearts. There is a Father, there is a home. The sky is not empty, the world is not orphaned. Doubtless, you are our Father, our Redeemer.
—John Ker