As the season of Easter continues we are offered a vision of a glorious future filled with promise—the promise that God will make a home with us. This is a promise of an ultimate future home – a New Jerusalem – but also a promise of God’s daily home-making presence in the hearts of all who believe. Paul has a vision of a cry for help, and his beloved church at Philippi is founded in the home of Lydia. In Revelation, John sees a vision of the New Jerusalem coming down to earth. No longer is there separation from God, weeping, or mourning, instead God’s people are at home together. Jesus promises that, though he is going away, he will come to his disciples by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that both he and the Father will make their home in all who believe. In worship – through word, water, and wine – we receive a foretaste of that New Jerusalem, where God will finally and ultimately be at home with us.
Image: Lydia of Thyatira by Harold Copping. In the public domain.