"In my Father's house There's a place for me I'm a child of God Yes I am"
Heaven is often a hard concept to grasp as a young child, but when your identity is rooted as a child of God it becomes just a little bit easier to understand. John 14:2 was etched in my memory from a very early age. (This verse is where the above lyric is based from). I was told from a very young age that this verse was my great-grandmother's favorite verse. I was also told after my grandfather had died, that since he was a builder, that in heaven he was building rooms for his family.
Yet, growing up, I probably understood heaven as a place where all good people go to when they died. A few of my relatives believed this, so it was easy to take the belief as my own too. This belief is based on the assumption that if we are a good person, we can earn our way to heaven. But when I accepted Jesus into my life, my understanding of heaven deepened. I became to see Heaven as a place where all people who have accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord will go to when they die.
However, I am learning as I grow up in my faith, that heaven is more than just the latter. I am now seeing that heaven is a place of rest and security for those who ran the place of faith with perseverance, setting their eyes on Jesus, with their identity rested in being a child of God.
Everyone on earth is a child of God, yet this doesn't mean all will go to heaven. When one accepts Jesus into their life, that are on their way in becoming what they already are: children of God. Their character and likeness needs to be shaped in the likeness of Jesus so that people may see only Jesus in them. It is only then, as they become what they already are, they will hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" (Matthew 25:23) when they enter the gates of heaven.
What are you doing to bring people to the Father's house today? Is your life, with your words and actions, pointing people closer to Jesus?
I urge you brothers and sisters, to let your life be molded and shaped into the likeness of Jesus. Let people into your life that need a loving hand of God's mercy and grace. Perhaps through God using you, they may become what they already are and enter the Father's house one day.
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