But Did He Give You His House Key?
A wide rectangular magnet adheres the glittery gold notepad to our finger- smudged white refrigerator. “To DO” is scrawled across the top in bold black sharpie. The list is long, as it always is if you’re a homeowner. Finish the deck. Paint the downstairs. Clean out the storage room. I suppose it should also say “Wipe down refrigerator”. Are those ketchup, or strawberry jam stains? We collaborated on the list because this is our house, we are the people that live here, love here, make home here.
Sometimes I feel the need to question how it is with Jesus. I mean, is he wondering “Where is my house? Who are my people? Where did we stake our family name plate in the ground? Too quickly I can find myself bringing down the shiny “To Do” lists with the brightly coloured check marks beside each bulleted item. “Here! Here! See! See! Look what I did! Is it here? Do I get to live here too?”
But there he is, isn’t he? Smiling a crooked, slightly confused grin in the muddied-up kitchen doorway of home. “You already belong here.” He gestures toward the wooden kitchen table where the dinged house key lay beside the dinner dishes. “I offered you a house key. You just need to pick it up, attach it to your ring and use it. It’s been here all along.
“Your ‘To Do’ List doesn’t make you belong here; my love makes you belong here. You feed them when they are hungry and give them something to drink when they are thirsty, you invite them to join you around the table and make sure they are cared for when they are sick. This is your home because your “To Do List” is an overflow of my love from your heart.”
Just moments later, “To Do List” still in hands, I notice the woman entering the chandelier lit front entryway. What about her? Can this be her home too? I gawk a little, she doesn’t look like me or act like me, she’s quite different than I am actually. I make note of how wasteful she is in purchasing the expensive, frivolous décor she is dragging down the hallway. Doesn’t her extravagance fly in the face of my careful sacrifice?Does she have a key to the house too? I rub the ribbed edges of the key nestled warm in my hand.
He shrugs a little and sighs, smile deepening in his eyes as he corrects my misstep in not seeing her beautiful gesture. Gifted a copy of his house key doesn’t assure me a piece of his property but it is an invitation to come create a home with him, an expression of his love. Only from that foundation does my heart change bring sacrifice. Only from that foundation does my heart change bring extravagance. As the inward moves outward this worship unlocks the door to His home.
**Taken from Matthew 25 & 26
Matthew 25:34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
