The Right Side of Heaven

There are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am, you may be too.

John 14:2–3 JB

When Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” we find a very interesting meaning for the word mansion. The Greek word used does not mean an imposing house but a resting place. The expression is translated in the margin of the American Standard Version as “abiding places.” This comes from the same stem as the English word remain.

During Christ’s ministry on earth He had no home. He once said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20 NIV). But His home in heaven will last forever.

The early disciples and other Christian pilgrims suffered in many ways, and Jesus knew it—for He suffered more severely than any of His followers. But they were all eagerly anticipating the beauty and permanence of a never-ending home that would last throughout eternity.

A little girl was taking a walk with her father one evening. Looking up at the stars she exclaimed, “Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!”

Our Father and our God, anywhere away from You must be the wrong side of heaven. Lead me and guide me, Lord, through this life until I can come to You on the right side of heaven. Until then, keep me safe from the evil one and help me to remember that my eternal abiding place is with You because of Christ, through whom I pray. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).