My life is in a bit of “flex.” My house of 16 plus years has been sold, my new home isn’t built yet and I am headed to an apartment for 12 weeks or so. So, I got to thinking about where my home is. In my childhood, Dad used to say that home is where he hung his hat. So, no matter how much we moved around, I was always “home” in the security of my relationship with my dad.

Can’t use the “hanging hat” thing anymore, so where is my home now?

Is my real home the permanent one that should be ready in a few months? Or, is my home the apartment that I am going to live in till the middle of summer?

All of those thoughts caused me to consider the heavenly city New Jerusalem as described in Rev. 22. But truth be known, biblical scholars disagree about whether Rev. 21 and 22 refer to a description of the eternal state that will finally be put into place for believers or whether it refers to a description of our dwelling places during the millennial age.

This past Sunday, my pastor made a reference to John 14:1-3 and suggested that the “mansion” or “rooms” described in that passage might be referring to temporary quarters (not permanent housing). Apparently the Greek word “mone” can mean more than just a dwelling place. It can also refer to the temporary tents that soldiers used in the first century as they traveled around.

So, John 14:2 might be translated, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My Father’s house has many temporary tents (rooms), if it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”

My perspective on my temporary apartment for the next few months has taken on new meaning. If our eschatology (study of end times) allows us to see a temporary “mansion”/”room”/tent as a dwelling place that He has provided as a “mid-term” location until the eternal state or New Jerusalem is put into place, I can see my apartment in the same light. It is temporary, not the permanent house…but it is home.

You may not be moving this week. Your earthly home may be secure, but I am sure that some kind of circumstance will unnerve you in the near future. And when it does, you may wonder where your home is too. Consider with me that very next verse in John 14 (vs. 3): “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.”

As believers, our home is where He is…and we get to be there too!

By His Grace and for His Glory,
Sherry L. Worel