The Key to My Father's House

In my Father’s house are many rooms … I am going there to prepare a place for you. I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am. John 14:2-3

After the death of my father last March, my childhood home of 54 years is being emptied out in preparation for listing on June 1st.

Painstaking process.

The house that’s witnessed years of love and laughter—and occasional exacting of discipline that comes with raising six children—will soon be relegated to a silence it’s rarely known since it was first built where it sat pretty, awaiting its first owners.

In a recent fit of sorrow, I wept over the impending loss. It’ll take time to wrap my brain around the fact that I'll no longer be able to walk through that door again and enjoy a place I've loved.

I still have the key that fits the lock. The wide end of it bears Dad's etching of my surname. Though it will inevitably be useless, no way I’m getting rid of this final foothold into my childhood.

But I get it. It’s a seller’s market. Best to list the house now rather than … well just not now.

Still, my heart can't accept the language of financial strategy when it’s losing oxygen.

The pity party I'd thrown over this "too much, too soon" reality had me perpetually conjuring the charming English Tudor facade with its wealth of memory. Until the Lord’s image intruded and re-directed my thoughts from brick, wood, and mortar onto Him.

"I am your home."

I inclined my heart.

Again … “I am your home.”

Over a decade ago, Mom's Alzheimer’s disease became more debilitating and she'd perpetually beg, “I want to go home." God in His kindness delivered her sweetly to His home less than a year later.

Now Dad is home with her. Because the key to enter isn’t made of metal.

It’s Jesus.

And Jesus is the gate that leads to a pasture of redemption. (John 10:9) Faith in His death and resurrection—that iconic and historic empty tomb— is the key to passing through.

In my bedroom many years ago, Jesus met me at my parent's house and offered the essential key to His Father’s house—the gift of His atoning sacrifice.

Freedom from the penalty of sin we all owe but can’t pay.

Readily, I accepted.

A relationship with Jesus is the most important key one can have. At God the Father's house, the locks won’t change and an alarm system is unnecessary.

Nothing rots, disintegrates, cracks, or rattles.

The environment is welcoming, measureless, and bathed in the radiance and life of Almighty God.

New residents are always welcome but won't claim legal ownership that require us to vacate.

No matter the ache of present reality, a permanent house awaits.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23:6

I rejoiced with those who said to me,

“Let us go to the house of the Lord.” Psalm 122:1

When you've lost someone or something you've loved, how has it changed your perspective from the temporal to the everlasting?

No matter what keys are in your possession, do you have the one that's most essential?

Thanks for reading!

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Until next time,

✏️ Exciting book news: This I Promise You, the prequel to the Heart of Moreland Manor series, is NOW AVAILABLE in ebook and paperback. What if finding your heart's desire means entrusting it ... just once more ... to the one who broke it?

A summary of Adelyn and Bryan's story can be found on my website here.

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