Making Church a home

 “Live in me. Make your home in me as I do in you…Make yourself at home in my love.” 

Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” That is a lot of love, and we have been invited to live in it, to make ourselves at home. 

Think about what it means to make ourselves at home. Messy hair, pyjamas on, not trying to be anyone that we aren’t. God is calling us to rest like THIS in how much he loves us. He is saying, “My love is never going anywhere. And you can bank on that. You do not have to shape up in order to come to me. My love shapes you. Come as you are in all of your messiness. And just rest.” 

Let's sit in our favourite armchair and rest. This is the amount of comfort and rest we are called to have in God’s abundant love. We didn’t start the relationship with God, so we cannot end it. And this has immense freedom wrapped in it. Make yourself at home in this kind of love.

However, Jesus doesn’t just say, “Abide in me.” He says, “Abide in me, and I in you.” Not only can we make ourselves at home in his love, but he makes himself at home in our hearts. 

In his story, “My Heart Christ’s Home,” Robert Boyd Munger tells the story of Jesus “moving in” to his heart. He walks Jesus through the rooms and tells him to “make himself at home,” but he doesn’t really mean it. One day, Jesus stops him and asks about the “odour coming from the hall closet.” After much arguing, Munger finally looks to Jesus and says, “I’ll give You the key, but You’ll have to open the closet and clean it out. I haven’t the strength to do it.” Later on in the story, we read the account of Jesus becoming the Master of the house, not just a guest:

“Then a thought came to me. I said to myself, “I have been trying to keep this heart of mine clear for Christ. I start on one room, and no sooner have I cleaned that than another room is dirty. I begin on the second room, and the first room becomes dusty again. I am so tired and weary trying to maintain a clean heart and an obedient life. I am just not up to it!” So I ventured a question: “Lord, is there any chance that You would take over the responsibility of the whole house and operate it for me and with me just as You did that closet? Would You take the responsibility to keep my heart what it ought to be and my life where it ought to be?” I could see His face light up as He replied, “Certainly, that is what I came to do.”

This analogy of Jesus living in our hearts is one that is compelling to me. We all have that room or closet that we don’t want Jesus to enter. We don’t want him to see how we have massively messed up and the struggles we still experience. But he comes to be Master of our hearts. And letting him truly “make himself at home” means giving him control on what comes in and what goes. He runs the house. And this is also deeply freeing. Jesus is in charge, so we don’t have to be. We submit to this freedom. 

As I’ve been thinking about this, I wonder how the Israelites from the Old Testament would have viewed this story. They knew the massive cost of God dwelling with them. Something had to die. Animals had to be sacrificed. Blood had to be shed. And now Jesus is talking about dwelling with us and dwelling in us? If you are a Christian, the God of the universe lives inside of you. We say that often, but we do not take enough time to just marvel at it. And the only reason that this is even possible is because Christ was the ultimate sacrifice. He gave his life so that we could make ourselves at home in his love, and he could make himself at home in us. And one day, when he makes everything new, he will dwell with us again when heaven comes to earth. Just like he did in the garden. We have this hope: 

“Look! God and his children are together again. No more running away. Or hiding. No more crying or being lonely or afraid. No more being sick or dying. Because all those things are gone. Yes, they’re gone forever. Everything sad has come untrue. And see–I have wiped away every tear from every eye!” – Sally Lloyd-Jones, The Jesus Storybook Bible

Make yourself at home in the relentless love of Christ today, and watch him truly make himself at home in your heart.