“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.”

If you venture downstairs at ACF five minutes before service starts any given week, you’ll likely find a child or two clinging to their grownups’ legs, reluctant to let their caregivers leave. I have been the parent with a child’s arms locked determinedly around my neck on several occasions. In these moments, I do my best to assure my child that I will be back soon.

This isn’t a perfect analogy to what is recorded in John 14. The stakes were certainly higher as Jesus extended these words of comfort to His disciples. He wasn’t leaving them to attend “big church” upstairs. He was leaving them to be tortured and killed. Yet He consoled them with the same promise the adults at ACF give their little people each week: “I will come back and take you to be with Me.”

Our family usually picks up donuts after church on Sundays. As much as all my children enjoy this tradition, reminding them of the after-church donut awaiting them has not been enough to persuade them to let go of me and enter their classrooms on the mornings they are hesitant to do so. Food, even food as delicious as donuts, isn’t what’s on my kids’ minds as I ask them to let go and step into class. They aren’t looking for a promise of sweet treats to come. They need to know we will be together again.  

When we look at John 14, we see Jesus didn’t assuage His friends’ fears with a detailed description of all the good things to come in heaven. Instead, He offered them the simple assurance they craved most: He would come back, and they would be together again. After all, as the Enduring Word commentary points out, “The entire focus of heaven is being united with Jesus. Heaven is heaven not because of streets of gold, or pearly gates, or even the presence of angels. Heaven is heaven because Jesus is there.”

Believing Jesus’ promise that He will come for us and we will be with Him again is vital for living abundant and fruitful lives. Psychology Today lists several effects of living with the fear of abandonment, one being it can be difficult to let others in. Unfortunately, many people reading this have experienced abandonment in some capacity, and it’s easy to allow the pain from our human relationships to affect how we see God. But when we live in fear of being abandoned by God, we aren’t able to lead the lives of love that He has called us to.  

In Colossians 1:4, Paul wrote, “we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven.” Our future hope that awaits us in heaven–being fully united with Jesus–is what fuels our present faith as well as our capacity to love others! And so, we need to know with confidence that we have not been abandoned by God.  

What helps me in the times when God feels distant is remembering the ways I have seen Him in the past–seen His power in Biblical narratives, seen His goodness in the testimonies of others, and seen His faithfulness in my own life. We’ve been singing the song, “You’ve Already Won,” at church recently, and there’s one line in particular that I really resonate with: “Don’t know what you’re doing, but I know what you’ve done.”  

When we don’t understand what God is doing, or when it feels like He has stopped working altogether and has abandoned us, remembering His past faithfulness can give us confidence in His promise of a future where He will come back for us and take us to be with Him forever. And taking hold of this promise is what frees us to live full of faith and full of love.

Dear Jesus,  

Thank you for being faithful to complete every good work you have begun. Thank you for the assurance you give me of a future spent with you. Help me to grasp how wonderful that will be. Let the fulness of that promise empower me to love the people you’ve put around me. Help me to be available to them, to share in their joy and their grief. Forgive me for the times I’ve felt you weren’t enough or felt you hadn’t fully equipped me for the work you’ve called me to. Thank you for the hope that is stored up for me in heaven.  

In your name I pray,  

Amen.