“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And you know the way to where I am going.”

John 14:2&4

“You made it!” I was a little surprised to see his wide smile fixed on me. It was big and real, and not something I felt I deserved. Before I could get out anything more than a grin, he continued on in barely contained excitement. “Take your shoes off. Leave them on. Whatever makes you comfortable! Sit wherever you want! See all this back here?” He turned and threw his arm out to gesture to the kitchen, and laughed. “Anything you find in these cabinets or the fridge is yours. Anything that’s mine is yours! Don’t hesitate to make yourself comfortable!”

His wife called out to address the group, saying that she was making some mac n’ cheese, and anyone was welcome to have some. I sat down on one of the couches, surrounded by people, as an energetic discussion began to pulse through the air.

“Oh, hey, Cora!” exclaimed another person as he entered the house. “Wow, now this really is a party!” I beamed at this recognition. Who were these people? I knew them, of course, from our Campus Christian Fellowship group, but this was an entirely different setting. The love that permeated the air was so strong. I felt recognized, seen, and wanted, without even having to say or do anything. Just my presence was enough.

And I found myself looking around the room hours later, thinking about how much I really loved these people. Some I knew quite well, and others I had only been in a few conversations with after weekly services, but every single person made my heart throb with joy.

I believe that love is a performative. That is to say, to tell someone you love them is the act of loving. It is a promise in itself to act in the way of love. It isn’t a feeling, but it evokes feeling in others. This living love is what was being passed around me in that little home, just short of tangible.

When the Scriptures talk about community, sometimes I’ve wondered if I’m doing it right. A verse that really sticks out to me is Acts 2:46:

“And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.”

I think I tend to skim over verses like this at times. Or, maybe skim is the wrong word. I think I, at least, tend to look at the meaning of the verse, and not take everything it says into account. When I had read that verse in the past, I took it to mean simply the bare structure of what it says. To me, it meant that it’s important to go to church and to meet with other believers in small groups or Bible studies. I don’t think that’s wrong, but now, I think there’s more to it than that.

I believe there is a reason the Scriptures include the details of “continuing daily with one accord,” and “breaking bread from house to house,” with “gladness and singleness of heart.” At least, now I do.

I believe that we, especially as Christians, are meant to be a big family. I believe we are meant to build some kind of home with each other. I have always loved the idea of Heaven as a coming home. A quote from C. S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces is a good rendition of how I feel about life after physical death:

“The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.”

This longing is real, and seemingly unquenchable on this Earth. I’m sure in some ways we will never reach the end, but I love the idea of Heaven as a going back to something – as a coming home.

If we are to bring Heaven to Earth, that includes bringing a sense of Home. Not that we’ll be able to experience the full extent of what that Home will be, but I’m certain we can have a taste of it. I’m certain I’ve tasted it before.

I want to make people feel that way – so utterly at home. And not home in an Earthly sense either, because sometimes that comes with a lot of baggage and insecurity. I want to be a Heavenly Homemaker. I want to invite people in and bring them a little bit closer to that intense, if soft, longing that is in each and every human being. I want to be a person that welcomes others into my family. I want to have a home that breathes the invitation of love into anyone who happens to step through the door.

Ultimately, whatever Heaven is, it’s a coming Home, and we are here to bring that Home to Earth.