Home Road

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6

When our children were small, we lived in the country. The road we lived on had a name. However, when we went away from home for various reasons and were returning, as soon as we got to the road we lived on, the children would get excited and say, “This is Home Road.” They could identify certain things along the road that told them they were on the way home.

Why were they excited for Home Road? To them, home was a place of safety, security and love … a place where they would be comforted when they were hurt in the process of growing up … a place where they would be instructed and disciplined and helped to become responsible, mature adults.

When Jesus told His disciples He must leave this earth and go to His Father’s house to prepare a place for them, they were at a loss. This Jesus was teaching them and training them in a new way of life. He was their comfort, their direction, their guidebook for how to live. And now, He was telling them He was leaving. Thomas explained that they didn’t know the way to be able to find Him.

The verse above is Jesus’ answer. Jesus said that He is the way, the road, to the heavenly home He has prepared for us. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people … everyone who by faith has trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of their souls … everyone who has been reconciled to a Holy God by the price Jesus paid for our sins through His death on the cross.

Jesus also said He is the truth we need to live by and the life – the source of everything we need – to live strongly, responsibly and with power.

Someone once said he became stronger in faith in difficult, troublesome times, times of trials, suffering and testing. If you’re now in such a time, like I am, we can experience, firsthand, that Jesus does indeed provide us with truth and life, just as He did the Apostle Paul as recorded in 2 Corinthians 12.

In the first six verses of that chapter, Paul says he was given a vision of Paradise. Then, in verse 7, he records, “A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.” In other words, to keep him from becoming prideful over the revelation, Paul was given suffering. Trials may come to humble us. Trials also draw us to the Lord in prayer or searching God’s Word for comfort or promises we can claim. Paul called upon the Lord three times in this experience to remove the thorn or the trial.

But, in this case, instead of the answer Paul requested, which would have given him a quick solution to the problem, Paul was given a better answer. God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” God gave Paul the opportunity to find out for himself how powerfully and perfectly God could sustain, hold and keep him when the trial didn’t go away as he asked for. Paul was being given an even greater revelation than Paradise … he could now experience Jesus as truth and the life in the middle of his suffering.

Through our trials, God can display His grace and provide a continual supply of it so we can endure what we’re going through. God never promises to remove all trials from our lives. What He does promise is to see us through them.

In human weakness, God’s grace is made clearer. The trials we go through may help us minister to someone else … perhaps to a person who isn’t on “home road” or perhaps just to encourage someone.

As God’s child, we need to remember that whatever difficulties we face as we travel “home road,” God has made for our benefit – including all the crooks and turns. Let’s be faithful to His Word and will and appreciate His many blessings. Thank Him that He is the Way, like Paul did. After God answered him, his response was, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

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