Real Hope: Welcome HomeSample

Coming Home

When I was a young man, I loved coming back home to regional NSW and surprising my aging Mum with an unannounced visit. My ritual would be to walk to the back of the house via the side passage whistling as I came. She would invariably call out, ‘Is that you Johnny?’ I was coming home. Coming back home from wherever. But coming home. And when she was there it was home and now that she has gone it’s just a house. Her presence and our relationship made it home.

I believe that Jesus’ promise and invitation to His disciples were that He was returning to God the Father in heaven to make God’s house our home. He is making a place where we will feel at home. His presence and our relationship make it home.

During the six months that I fronted up to the oncology day-treatment rooms twice a month for chemotherapy, I thought excitedly about this invitation from Jesus and the reality that one day Jesus would come for me and I would go home. The threat to my health has passed but the joy remains. I can imagine one day landing somehow in heaven to the words, ‘Is that you Johnny?’ as Christ calls my name. This home is not just for me or for us but for as many as respond to His invitation, those known as ‘whoever wants to come.' Won’t you join me?

written by JOHN SCOTT