Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (John 14:23)
What
would it be like to have the Father and the Son make their home with you? The
two things Jesus mentions will likely give us pause: loving and obeying
God. That gets in the way of “It’s my life” and “It’s my body!” In other words,
it’s rather like living in a family. You
have to take the wishes and preferences of others into account. And while we always
assume that all of the residents in the household have equal authority, but
that’s never really the case, and ultimately, we wouldn’t want it to me. For
example, if someone in the household was an expert in carpentry, would you
really think the carpenter should look to your guidance on the construction of
something? Oh, there might be some discussion of the aesthetics, but when it
comes to what works and what doesn’t, a wise person will bow to the experience
of the carpenter.
When it comes to building your life, who is likely to have a more comprehensive
and exhaustive understanding of you, how you work, the universe, and how the universe
works: you, or the One who created you and the universe? Instead, we (including I) tend to get on our high horses about God thinking He’s something
special and we’re all supposed to kiss His boots because otherwise He’ll get
mad and strike us with some plague. We would never say such a thing,
but He’s God! Why is He so self-centered or insecure that He thinks everything should
be done His way? Grumble, grumble, grumble. When we look at the words or listen
to ourselves, it’s often obvious that we’re being silly, and sometimes, we get
even sillier as a result – trying to justify ourselves.
What
we really need to do is what Job did – put our hands over our mouths and go sit
in a corner. Why wouldn’t we want God to make His home with us? Can
we really imagine that there would be no benefit in it?
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