I find that I so often put God into a box. I look at that box and I say to myself, “WOW! I really serve a big God.” I look at other people’s God and the box they have Him in is always smaller (yeah I get delusional at times).
Not long ago I was reading about how Jesus has gone away to prepare a place for us in John 14:2 where it says “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” I got to thinking about what does it say in the Greek about my fathers “house” and “mansions”. I got out my Strong’s Concordance and found pretty much what I expected.
“House” is a family dwelling and “mansion” is a residence. So in God’s house we get a room to live in. That really didn’t seem that great. Nothing much to be excited about. If I was a good little Christian boy I might even get a few rooms to live in.
I looked at the verse and asked God about it. I didn’t really see much in this verse that God could tell me about but hey, maybe God was smarter then I was and could shine a small light on something new. This is approximately how my conversation went with that still small voice:
God: Where is my house?
Me: In Heaven. Its beautiful there with a huge throne room, lightning and thunder, angels everywhere and people worshipping you.
God: Where is my house?
Me: Oh! You mean inside me?
God: Where is my house?
A confused me: Um….what do you mean?
God: Where do I live?
Me: Well, you’re in my heart. (quiet) You’re in Heaven. (quiet) You’re um….everywhere.
God: Where is everywhere?
Me being dumb: Well, its everywhere. (quiet) You live here and in Heaven. I guess you fill the whole Universe and every other dimension there is.
God: I live in all of existence and in all of time. My house is far more then a simple building of wood or stone. The place that is being prepared for you is far greater then a room or mansion.
Me in wonder: The universe is your home and you have a place for each Christian someplace in your universe. Wow! You mean like I will get a world or maybe even a solar system in the Milky way as my own place to live in? That is so cool Lord.
God: You think small, child.
Me stunned: But… Lord that’s huge. How could you…?
Then it hit me. God reminded me of a You Tube video I once saw (video here) which showed two pictures that the Hubble telescope had taken. The pictures took 10 and 11 days each with the telescope pointing into a dark patch of space. What they found were thousands of galaxies with millions of stars in each one. There must be billions of galaxies out there. Could each one of them be a residence that Jesus is preparing for us?
I don’t know for sure that this is what God has prepared for us. I do know that we think to small when it comes to God. I would not put it past him to have a galaxy for each of us, but with a God as big and as great as ours, He could prepare a whole universe for us if He wanted. I did learn one thing for sure. Don’t limit what God can do for you.
Photo Credit: God in box on shelf by Stan Connell
