A slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. (John 8:35)
My daughter is at the age where she loves to draw, and she loves to draw pictures of our family. Typically when she does this she draws an enormously rotund figure that she calls “Daddy,” and then two very petite figures that she calls “Mommy” and “Baby.” Its really quite insulting, actually.
But she doesn’t stop with drawings of the members of our family; she loves to draw pictures of our house. The place where we all live together is important to her. The house is the locus of our fellowship, the center of our connectivity. The house is where we sleep together, wake together, dress together, eat together, play together, laugh together, clean together . . . There are so many “togethers” associated with the house, and that is why children love to draw pictures of the houses that they live in.
Jesus tells us that sons (children) have a right that slaves do not have: they have the right to live in the house forever. This is a strange idea in our culture in which parents can’t wait to get their kids out of the house. A 30-year-old who still lives with his parents can become the subject of ridicule among his peers (and even among his parent’s peers . . . unless he is asian?). But Jesus says that in God’s economy, sons don’t grow up and leave the house; they abide there forever.
In my Father’s house are many rooms. The KJV mistakenly translated this verse, In my Father’s house are many mansions. Can you imagine one house containing many mansions? No, it is one house containing many rooms. On this earth we leave our parent’s homes when we grow up so that we can have our own homes and raise our own children there. But when this life is over, we will come to dwell in the Father’s house, and each of us has a room there.
In the Father’s house we will enjoy the many “togethers” of the kingdom of God. We will not sleep, but we will be forever awake. We will not sorrow, but we will forever rejoice. And we will worship together and feast together and revel together and play together. We will be together forever, with each other and with the Father, and with the Son, and with the Spirit, and with the angels, and with the ancients. We will all dwell under one roof and eat at one table.
I wonder what marvelous pictures we’ll draw of that family when we live as children of that house?
