July 25 - John 14:2

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?

One summer our family went on vacation without a firm plan regarding where we would spend each night.  Dad had a plan for the central part of the trip, but while we headed that way, he and mom decided they would just drive until they were too tired to go any further and look for a campsite.  Back in that day and age, we didn't stay at many hotels; those were far too expensive.  Dad had designed a beautiful tent for the family and we were going to use it.

I do not believe that trip turned out exactly as he had planned.  The spontaneity was more along the lines of an argument between him and my mother as they attempted to discern when and where that great campsite might exist.

That was the last of those trips.  From that point forward, Dad planned everything precisely. That ended up being one of the things he was best known for – his ability to plan and execute a trip.  When he took youth and adults on adventure trips and work camps, his planning was legendary. He distributed a well thought-out list of items each person should ensure they packed for the trip and if you followed it, you would have all that you needed – no more and no less.

Our family took a trip to Canada just after my brother graduated from high school. The plan was for us to drive as far north as the road would go and then stop. Dad had a good idea where that would be and knew there would be campsites available, so he told me what I needed to pack and they planned to pick me up on their way out of Iowa.

Mom had tried to tell me about all the work Dad had put into planning this trip, but I didn't believe it until I saw the van. He had pulled the bench seats out, lined up plastic crates along the floor of the van, leaving an aisle down the middle. On top of the crates, on either side of the aisle were two three by eight food foam mattresses.  While that was awesome, what was even crazier was the planning he had put into the contents of each crate.  We had everything that we needed and he had gone so far as to make a map of each crate and what it contained.

That week in Canada was truly a great experience because he had done so much work to prepare a fabulous vacation for us.

Jesus Christ has prepared a place for us in heaven. My father’s planning and execution of the plan to make a great vacation for his family was nothing in comparison to the plans Jesus has for each of us.

He told us that he was preparing a home for us in heaven. It will be perfect.