If you knew this family you’d be rooting for them, even though there isn’t much hope for them.  Recently widowed by the war, the single mom struggles to raise her children, one of whom really needs a special wheel chair – the cost of which is beyond thinking about.  She’s just been laid off.  She’s doing her best but the house, damaged badly from a super-storm, is beyond repair… Enter Ty Pennington and the guys from ABC’S “Extreme Makeover, Home Edition.” (This popular show is no longer on the air.)   Within moments of their arrival, the surprised family has been sent off on a posh vacation, bulldozers have been called in, along with ant-like hordes of construction volunteers, to scrape away the house and rebuild it into the home of her dreams.

English: VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Feb. 2, 2011) Sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) help build a home for a mother currently raising six foster children. The project is part of an episode of Extreme Home Makeover: Home Edition. Theodore Roosevelt is undergoing a multi-year refueling complex overhaul at Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Cmdr. Karen E. Eifert/Released) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s the thing:  While they are gone, It doesn’t take long for hotel living to wear thin, especially with a bunch of kids who have special needs. But they all know that one day they will be back home. They don’t have any idea of what “back home” will be like, simply that it will be unimaginably better. One day soon they will see it. And tour it. And get the keys for it, along with a paid-up mortgage.  Imagine her anticipation.   If you’ve ever watched that show, you know …

Now read this:

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  (1 John 3:2)

John says, “Fellow believers in Jesus, we have been born into the family of God and one day we are going home. We don’t have much of a clue what “home” will be like, but it’s going to be wonderful.”  Maybe that seems like a fantasy to you.  If so, if you think God can’t pull that off, plant some wild flower seeds in dirt – dirt mixed with manure – and wait and watch to see what God does.   Consider whether a caterpillar has any inkling of what the future will be like as a butterfly.

John says we know, that one day we will be like Jesus; that one day we will be able to see Jesus as He really is!   Imagine having eyes that are not startled to see Jesus strolling on a lake or healing the blind. Imagine one day being able to think like Jesus!  We are in for an extreme makeover!

There’s more to this – keep chewing and stay tuned…