A PLACE FOR YOU

So there I was. I had just gotten a new Labrador Retriever puppy (Aslan) and was explaining to him that I was leaving him alone in rather an uncomfortable improvised crate in order to go and get a better one ready for him. As I was telling him I was going to be setting up a new home for him I knew he couldn't understand it and that he would be upset by my leaving and I heard the familiar phrase in my heart "I go to prepare a place for you."

JESUS said this to His disciples in John 14. He was explaining, as I was trying to explain to my new furry friend, that He was going away for a little while to prepare a place for them to enjoy with Him, and He would be back for them to bring them to that place with Himself forever. At first they were frightened, like my puppy, and couldn't understand how some other place could be better than this one. To be with Him was enough, now, what could be better?

JESUS went on to try to explain that there was more, much more, that they would be able to enjoy together but first this separation was necessary. My dog had to learn this same lesson.

While I am away from my puppy during the day some friends "puppy-sit" him. It's not the same as being with me, and he complains when I first drop him off, but when we are reunited it is all worthwhile. Whenever I come back from being away, my dog greets me with so much joy it seems as if he is going to jump out of his four legs. And some day, those of us who love JESUS will enjoy His Presence with the Father just as joyfully, as He promised, in the place He prepared for us, consoled until then by the Presence of the Holy Spirit who will guide us and watch over us.

We can learn even from a puppy that as the puppy becomes overjoyed at our presence and in his temporary home, we can take joy in the comfort of the Holy Spirit now as He leads us safely to the Home JESUS prepared for us in the Presence of the Father, united in joy forever with our Master in ways we can't imagine now.

A Thousand Thanks

Can you think of one thousand things you're thankful for? It might be hard to even think of one, but I challenge you to try. Start with the basic things of life, each breath you take, each heartbeat that happens unbidden, each piece of beauty that fills your eyes (if your eyes work) or sound that slips through your ears and into your heart (if your ears work). Some of us don't have parts of our bodies that work, but each of us has at least a thousand things we can be thankful for. And, as if that weren't enough, these things are renewed every day, a refilling of something old or something new to be thankful to GOD for every day of Life and into eternity, if we will listen to His Voice calling us there.

Jeremiah had a rough life. Stuck preaching stuff he didn't want to say and getting punished by those around him every time he did. He wrote the book called Lamentations (or "Complaints") because of the rough life he had and the rough news he had to deliver. And yet, in Lamentations 3:21-24 (including my "life verse" Scripture) it says: "This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope:
It is through the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. 'The LORD is my portion,' saith my soul, 'Therefore will I hope in Him.'..."

GOD's mercies are new every morning. No matter how rough the road there are stars above to wonder at in the darkness, blue skies or majestic clouds to revel in through the storms. There is awe in Life and something to be thankful for, no matter what, every day. A thousand of them, at least, in my case. And I'm sure in yours. Check me out and let me know if it's not true. And the greatest of them all is GOD Himself, our portion, the best of Life here and now and forever all for our acceptance if we will only take Him at His word. JESUS CHRIST who gave Himself for us.