Jul
29
2014
No Vacancy
Posted in Heaven 2 Comments
Summer is the season of vacations.
During the months of June, July, and August families leave the routine for the different.
Destinations vary according to preference and age of children.
Planning usually happens after the New Year to make sure accommodations are reserved.
Usually.
Growing up, we never took vacations.
I only remember one vacation to Williamsburg when I was about eight years old.
Consequently, I am not the traveler now; I am more of a homebody, if truth be told.
We did try to go away a few times, but the results were disastrous.
We would pack the car to go to the shore.
Pack as if we were going to stay.
In my little girl mind, we were heading to the beach.
My mind flooded with all the possibilities.
Ocean, sand, boardwalk, and amusement park rides, the list was endless.
I remember sitting in the back seat of the car mesmerized with the mirages on the road.
I would ask about why the water I saw on the road disappeared when we reached it.
I never got an adequate answer then but looking for the mirage passed the time.
We would reach the shore and drive up and down the streets.
I never understood as a little girl why we kept driving.
I can still hear my mother say, No Vacancy. No Vacancy, as we passed sign after sign.
The mood in the car seemed tense, so I never asked what the word vacancy meant.
No Vacancy could not be a good thing.
We had our bags in the trunk.
I had my bucket to make sand castles.
Why couldn’t we get out and go to the beach?
That question along with, are we there yet? was better left unsaid.
Right there on the tip of my tongue, yet my young mind knew better than to ask.
After driving around for a long time, it was decided that the search was futile.
The trip as planned would be amended to just one day at the beach.
There were places to change into your bathing suit.
The chairs could still be brought to the beach.
The bucket could still make the turrets for my beautiful castle.
But now the day was suddenly shorter and the return trip made clock watching a necessity.
We would return home later that night and unload the car.
As a little girl, a day at the beach was exciting.
As I got older, I saw the frustration in my mother’s eyes.
No reservations. No planning. No vacancy.
Since my mother died when I was in high school, there are many unanswered questions.
Answers that I have to surmise rather than know the truth.
Vacations were not something we did as I grew up.
Not until my mother died and my father wanted to run.
Run off to Europe for a two-week trip.
Never going much further than my hometown and now I was going to Europe.
Europe at a time when I just wanted to stay home.
Europe at a time when I just wanted my mother back again.
Five countries in two weeks.
France, Germany Switzerland, Holland, and England.
It was like driving years later to Cape Cod and stopping at a rest stop in Rhode Island.
Could we really say we were there?
A whirlwind tour when I needed stillness.
It wasn’t until many years later that I realized why I never liked vacations.
That changed a bit with marriage and children.
It took me a while to adjust.
You mean we actually go somewhere and they are expecting us?
You mean we drive in the car and can really stay in another place?
You mean there is a house just for us?
Really, I can trust you?
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:1-6)
In my Father’s house are many rooms.
I am going there to prepare a place for you.
You will ever see a No Vacancy sign on the door of heaven.
If you believe that Jesus is the only way back to the Father, No Vacancy does not apply.
If you trust in Jesus alone for your salvation, your room in heaven is waiting.
There is no need to bring suitcases; you won’t need them there.
There is no driving around waiting for your place to be ready; Jesus took care of that.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:6-8)
Absent from the body; present with the Lord.
No waiting.
No driving around.
If you have trusted in Christ your room is ready; immediately.
No Vacancy does not apply.
Jesus took care of the reservations.
You can trust Him.
I remember vacations in another way–too much planning! Twice my Dad planned a cross-country trip of about a month. The first time I went (only child), getting bored by all the driving; not enough stops. Educational, but not a lot of “fun”. The second time a long trip was planned, I asked to stay with my grandparents in Florida, so I flew down to Tampa and stayed with them. But I do remember looking for “vacancy” signs and wondering what the accommodations might be like. How wonderful to know that there is a room in heaven for me and that the accommodations will be wonderful!
Sue,
Isn’t it wonderful that despite our own remembrances, we have an eternal place waiting for us. No work or striving on our part will secure it. Just acceptance of the glorious accommodations Jesus provides.
Gina