I'm not much of an eschatology-minded girl, but this thought was important enough to share with a 9-year-old in Palermo, so it's good enough for the blog.
We sat on the cardboard, coloring, as the evening sky grew almost too dark to see the colors. We had waited hours to perform the skit, and to be honest, it was a bit lackluster: a handful of kids in the audience, audio problems, missed lines, and now 4 little ones sitting around me, coloring in the boat and talking. The oldest (9 years old, birthday in March, yellow t-shirt) was pretty savvy, and remembered stuff about Jesus from her confirmation class. But something unsettled her.
"You said that when we live with Jesus, we don't have to be afraid. But death- not that I'm afraid or anything- no one actually knows what happens after we die."
Ah. Life. Death. The unknown and the unknowable. My brain skipped a beat through the doubts, and went back to a story, a conversation...1
And Peter asked Jesus: "where are you headed?"
Where indeed?
Jesus had been talking about his death again- not the most settling after-dinner conversation, even if the dinner had included some weird metaphors; the disciples, just called friends, were shaken. Their teacher hadn't preached much about the afterlife, and Jewish theology was pretty hazy when it came to Sheol 2 and spirits and Abraham et al. They were about as informed as the 9-year old, or as fearful as the 23-year-old some days.
Typical Jesus, he doesn't answer their question directly. But he does calm their fears. This is his good news for them and for us:
I am going to my Father to prepare a place for you, so that we can live together.
Or, as I summarized in Palermo...there is room in God's house for you.
Jesus has specifically calculated its expansive dimensions with you in mind; there is a place set for you at the table, a spot to kick your shoes off haphazardly in the walkway, a window angled toward the best panorama 3. It is a space crafted to make you feel secure, cared for, valuable, and loved.
In God's love, there is room for you.
"But how do we get there?" wondered Thomas. How can we possibly find our way home to a place we've never been 4? How do you point a 9-year-old (that you'll likely never see again) in the direction of welcome and love? After so many miles, how do you aim your own worn tennis shoes towards where you belong?
You point them towards Jesus.
There are no GPS coordinates, no Google street-views of the Way. As much as even I would like to reduce my faith to disciplines and steps- start with this book of the Bible, go here, pray like them- I realize that ultimately misses the point. "The call is gracious because it is a call to follow Jesus"5. While none of the above are wrong (they are actually quite helpful), they are not the way to the house or to the Father. Jesus is.
This is good news to Palermo, this is good news to us: there is plenty of room prepared, and Jesus marks the path from the soles of your soul to the wide-open door. There is a cross, there is death in the Way home. But 6, there is also resurrection and life.
There is room in this Way, there is room in this house for you.
Fear not =)
1 This famous exchange comes from John 13-14
2 Sheol is one of the more common Old Testament words for "grave", or "death". From the sound of many Psalms and Ecclesiastes, it's kind of a no-man's land: there is no praise or reports because there is no life.
3 Christian kids of the 90's are already singing it with me...It's a big big house...(Audio Adrenaline)
4 Another song...Switchfoot's "This is Home"
5 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "The Cost of Discipleship"
6 Spoiler alert!
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