THAT HOUSE WAS A PERFECT HOUSE

(Post by: Madie Hobbs)

I was sitting in a Bible study recently discussing some of the final words of Jesus here on earth, which He uttered to His disciples. We specifically got to one particular verse that struck me a bit differently this time around, which I thought I would share with you today.

“Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me” (John 14:23-24 NIV).

The part that particularly stuck out to me was when Jesus said, “We will come to them and make our home with them.” Most Biblical scholars would probably have expressed a thought pattern far more sophisticated and theological than the one I began to ponder, but it was one which made this verse all the more real to me last night.

Whenever most people hear the word “home” they probably think of a particular geographical location, a place where they grew up perhaps, or where they have raised their own family. Considering what I thought of it just goes to show you how much time I spend stuck in books.

My first thought when I heard “home” was of a place I will never be able to visit but one I often return to in my mind. That home is known as the Last Homely House, a realm and dwelling place for the elves in the book, The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien. This place is one of rest, of stillness, of ease, which is viewed as a sort of outpost for weary travelers, especially in this story.

Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit who loves nothing more than his own home, and who is at the center of this tale, has embarked on a new job as a burglar with a band of rowdy, oblivious, and often frustrating dwarves on a quest to take back their own home from a great dragon who stole it from them long ago.

When this unlikely group comes to the Last Homely House, they come to it as a last form of comfort. Once they depart, respite will be out of reach, and the trials will be many. Only a wilderness awaits them, where they are sure to encounter every form of peril and danger.

Just not quite yet.

The Last Homely House is described by Tolkien like this, “That house was a perfect house. Whether you liked food or sleep, or storytelling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear, and sadness.”

It sounds exactly like a place I should very much like to go to, I have always thought.

Yet as I sat listening to Jesus talk about building a home in us, I began to wonder if this house was not far more near to me than I once thought. Perhaps it was a place I could go, a place I could experience.

Throughout the rest of The Hobbit, Bilbo often returns to the Last Homely House in the halls of his mind. It was a refuge for him, even when he could not be there, and as much as he missed his own home, he knew the doors of that place would always be open to him, and he would always have a spot at the hearth before the great fire. He goes there when the nights grow bitterly cold, when his bones ache, and when his quest seems unending.

In his final days, long after his quest did finally end, Bilbo returned to that house, and lived out the rest of his life there, where every need was met, and every comfort was provided.

As I consider the home Jesus invites us to create with Him, I think it looks a lot more like the Last Homely House than I once thought.

Our home with Jesus is a perfect House, not because trials or dangers are never experienced, but because we have everything we need to face those trials and dangers. What makes this home even better than the one Bilbo so loved, is that we never have to depart from it. It is not merely an outpost one spends a little time in before facing peril alone. It is an eternal resting place, a house built on everlasting principles, and one we are invited to reside in day after day.

We should not ignore, however, that our home with Jesus is built on conditions which have the ability to continue improving our living quarters. It’s quite simple really. This house is built on the love we give back to the one who faced the ultimate trials of this world in our place, and we must by extension obey His commands. In return, we are given a place of refuge, of safety, and of beauty.

As we step into worlds of peril and danger, let us remember this truth. That house is a perfect house. Merely to be there is a cure for all weariness, fear, and sadness.