By Doug Creamer

I wrote last week about spending time with my sister and her family over the holidays. We spent New Year’s weekend with my wife’s mother and sister. It was a good trip home and we had a nice visit. It was nice to have the opportunity to spend time with family while we were home.

It was also good to come home to our house. It’s nice to sleep in your own bed after being away. It’s also nice to be around your own stuff in your own home. It’s been busy since we got home, getting Christmas taken down and put away for another year. There were also other tasks that needed our attention.

I have been thinking a lot about the word home since we got back. I told people we went home for Christmas. Then I told some other people that we were really glad to be back home again after our trip. Then the word home comes up in that famous song that is sung around the holidays, “I’ll be home for Christmas.”

Where is home? I referred to my mother-in-law’s house as home. I referred to our house as home. There is also the spiritual idea that someday I am looking forward to going home to be with the Lord. All these places can’t be home for me, can they?

Naturally, I wanted to find the definition of home. We commonly define home as the place where one lives permanently. It’s where the family resides. There is another definition that says home is where one is put who needs professional care or supervision. Thankfully, I am not at that stage in life. So the place where I reside is my home. Then why do we call our parents’ house home? I think our parents’ house is where our childhood memories reside. It’s home.

So we have the place where we currently reside, the place where we grew up, and then we have our eternal home. I believe our eternal home trumps our current residence and our childhood home. Our eternal home is our destination. We live this life in hope that we will spend eternity with our Savior in our eternal home.

There is so much speculation about our heavenly home. What will it look like? How big will it be? Will it be a castle? Will it be more like an apartment? I believe we don’t know because each of our homes will be unique to our personality. Also, we don’t know because the marketing department hasn’t produced their promotional campaign. I really believe if we knew how nice and wonderful our heavenly home is going to be many of us would want to “pop off,” as my grandmother used to say, to our heavenly home.

It really doesn’t matter what any of us thinks about our heavenly home because I am convinced of this one thing: it will be far better than any of us could ever imagine. The main reason I believe our heavenly home will far outdo anything we can imagine is that Jesus will be there. In fact, we will get to be with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and our Heavenly Father. I am not worried about what home will be like or look like as long as I get to be with them.

Where will your home be? Are you ready to be with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? We don’t have to wish or even hope that we will be there. We can know beyond a shadow of doubt that we will be with them. When we ask Jesus to be our personal Savior, to forgive us from all our sins, and to wash us clean through His blood, we can be assured that our eternal home will be in heaven. It’s not up to God, it’s up to you. You determine where you will spend eternity. If you have made that decision, you can rest in peace, but if you haven’t you are choosing to live away from God’s love, Jesus’ forgiveness and the amazing Holy Spirit.

I encourage you to make this vital choice while you have time. When you stand before God it will be too late. Accept God’s invitation now so you can know that you have a reserved home in heaven. I want to meet you and see you there. Heaven will be far more wonderful than your mind can conceive. I am hoping for a home with a nice garden spot and maybe close to some water. What about you?

Contact Doug Creamer at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041 or doug@dougcreamer.com.