We recently had a beautiful room renovation happen to our main bedroom. It was long overdue, to be honest. We’ve lived in our home for nine years and up until now, we had never done a single thing to our bedroom – no paint, no curtains, not much cleaning, I confess, and it was becoming the “catch all” room for any of the kids’ junk that didn’t have a home or paperwork that needed to be filed or toys that went to time out; our room was where everything came to die and collect dust and receive curses from me as I went to bed (and woke up) in a space that was for sure not life giving, but rather quite the opposite.

The circumstances of how the renovation took place were quite exciting and will be airing this summer on HGTV, actually! (I’ll write more about that experience later.) Going on this fun, albeit challenging, adventure was the only way for us to bite the bullet and get our house [read: bedroom] in order. So we went for it! We moved out for nearly three weeks with friends, handed the keys over to trusted professionals and then, when the time was right, we had the “Big Reveal” and we got to come HOME and see the beautiful space that had been prepared for us. And beautiful it was! – however, the reveal left me even more homesick.

I couldn’t help but see all these weeks of hard work and this massive team of professionals who worked so diligently on our home and think only of my home in heaven. It made me remember how right now, literally this minute, Jesus is preparing a place for us! We’re in the “move out” phase of the reno of life, if you will. We’ve been displaced earth side at this time, but our home (if you know Jesus as your Savior) is in HEAVEN. And as much fun as you can make it being “displaced” – staying with friends, eating out, making the best of the displacement – you should know and feel deep down in your soul that this world is NOT your home. We should be eagerly anticipating the Big Reveal! I, for one, cannot wait for THAT reveal day! I anticipate it and am so eager for it! I’m so homesick for heaven and to see Jesus and what it is He’s been working on for us this whole time!

The day of our bedroom reveal, when I experienced such great joy and happiness at the beauty and splendor of the transformation and pure amazement at how gifted the designer and her team were, I also had the pleasure of observing the pride and joy of their hard work. It was smiles all around that day! And I picture how proud and joyful Jesus will be to get to reveal to us our eternal home that He has prepared for us.

Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14 : 2-3

There’s an old southern gospel song whose lyrics say, “I’ve got a mansion, just over the hilltop. In that bright land where, we’ll never grow old. And some day yonder, we will never more wander, but walk on streets that are purest gold.” (https://youtu.be/YfZ3qyYnzJ0) I love southern gospel music. I grew up on it, in fact. And the thing I love about what most southern gospel music has to offer is that it’s usually directing your eyes to heaven, to the future coming of Jesus and to the hope that can be found in trusting that He will be back to rescue His church. (Acts 1:11) When I listen to songs like “Mansion Over the Hilltop”, “What a Beautiful Day (for the Lord to Come Again)”, “Going Up Yonder”, “I’ve Never Been This Homesick Before”…these songs all remind me that this world is not my home, I have a Savior eagerly awaiting “Reveal Day” that loves me and wants to show me the beauty and splendor of what He has created and that the home there, in heaven, will last for eternity. It will not faint or grow old and weary. It won’t collect dust or need a coat of touch up paint over time.

As beautiful and functional as my bedroom is now, and as much as I love it, it’s still just “stuff.” My treasure is not found in a room, or in a TV show, or in any thing that will be burned up and thrown into the fire. (2 Peter 3:10) I’m trying with all that I have to only store up for myself treasures that are in heaven, where moth and rust don’t destroy. (Matthew 6:19-21) Are you living that way, friend? Are your eyes on eternity? Or on the temporal? We’re running out of time FAST. Now is the time to set your eyes on Jesus. Maybe it’s just resetting your priorities. Maybe it’s a total revamp of where your treasure is. Or maybe you don’t know Jesus at all and I seem like some crazy lady (#hereforit ;)). Whether your final destination is in heaven in a mansion that Jesus is preparing for you, or if the opposite is true and eternal separation from God is where you’re headed, this world is temporal and not your home. This world is a tiny vapor, a mist in all of eternity, and a time for you to hear the Good News of a Savior who loved you, died for you in order to rescue you and is a killer designer and is literally creating a place for you in heaven if you would accept Him and His free gift of salvation.