Building Mansions in Heaven

"How Many Rooms Are In Your House?"

So you’d like to live in a larger home. Does that mean that you will have to move? Probably. But not necessarily out of the house you are living in. If you want to live in a larger home what you really need is a mansion in Heaven. I know a lot of folks that are waiting until they die or until the Lord returns to get their mansion in Heaven, but perhaps there is another way of looking at this. Maybe we can begin living in that mansion now.

One way of translating the reference to Jesus’ remark that there were many mansions in his Father’s home that he was preparing for us is to translate the word mansion as “rooms”. In other words, God has many rooms in God’s Kingdom—there are many things to do, places to go, ways to be, and since all of God’s creation is about service, there are many ways to serve in God’s house.

This idea is a bit different than the one we often hold onto and that is the picture of retiring in Heaven in a large mansion where we live all by ourselves and sit back and do nothing for an eternity or two—or perhaps we take up painting and gardening. The idea that God is preparing a place for us to serve goes along with Jesus’ statement that the Kingdom of God is within us. God is preparing in our hearts and lives new ways of being and serving in the world.

When we move into a larger arena of service, when we open our hearts in love and compassion to our fellow human beings, when we awaken to the needs to care for our planet, our beloved nest, we move into a larger house. Suddenly, we no longer view our lives as only pertaining to our interests and ourselves but we see them as they relate in service for God. This expands our world and our home grows larger. We draw a bigger circle that includes more of God’s creation. We are indeed increasing the size of our home.

We must move from being ego centered to being other centered. It moves us from the broom closet out into the living room. It changes our focus from the notion that God’s Kingdom begins someday to the reality that Jesus taught and that is that the Kingdom begins here and now.

We will never outgrow being of service to the universe. We will always be asked to serve in some way. This is what gives joy and meaning to life. The more our lives of service expand, the more rooms we have in our house. We grow exponentially as we give out from what we receive of the goodness of God.

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