On the Highway to Heaven
"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."
John 14:2-3 RSV
Fr Mark-Mary gave us an analogy during one of his rosary in a year reflections. He said that while no analogy will ever be able to reflect the fullness of God, this one he felt was particularly weak. But I found it to be a perfect, simple, fit. In fact, I relate to it so much I've built on it.
So here it is:
Imagine Jesus bought a house for all of us in to live. He's already there and we're on a road trip to go to the house. You can imagine we're FaceTimeing with him as he walks us around the house showing us how great it's all going to be when we get there. Although video from a phone obviously can't fully capture its beauty, still anticipation builds and we just can't wait to get there. But we have a long journey ahead of us. We have the trials of the road trip. People get uncomfortable. Maybe you have to go to the bathroom or your hungry. Those you're traveling with might start to get on each other's nerves. This is life. And this is when it's important to remember where you're going and never stop journeying there.
*cue the phrase "I will turn this car around!" shouted angerly to a backseat of fighting children*
Now my take on this analogy:
Every summer our family and extended family rent a house on the shore and all gather there for a week. It's a tradition I grew up with and one my husband and I felt important to carry on so long as we were financially able. Since in our family we are familiar with long road trips to a rented beach house, this is where my mind immediately went for this analogy.
Jesus bought us a beach house. He already paid the price. And we are all invited to it. All we have to do is endure the road trip to get there with the Holy Trinity as our fuel and navigation.
While praying over my family I found this analogy even more fitting. My husband, kids, and myself all piled in while my parents, siblings, and cousins with their families are also driving in separate cars. I always pray for their safe arrival but beyond that there's not much I can do. My focus is to get my family there.
On real beach trips my husband drives as I believe is pretty typical in families. The mother's role typically is to manage the kids in the back. Of course she is always ready as copilot to assist or take over if needed. But the primary responsibility of getting the family to it's destination is on the father of the family.
In this analogy, however, I see myself driving because my husband is asleep in the passenger seat. I didn't have to force him in the car; he got in willingly. He is a wonderful husband and father and he was/is excited to go to Jesus's house together. But he fell asleep. And I cannot force him to drive.
Since he is asleep I am also left with the role of managing the kids in the back who are getting bored and cranky. They were forced in the car but were overall excited about where we were going until they became bored. Enduring the long road trip is a lot harder when you have the attention span of a child. They cannot keep reminding themselves of what's ahead. It can be tempting to threaten to "turn this car around" but then none of us would get there. The images of all my family gathering in the house Jesus bought for us with Jesus himself is too much to give up. I don't want to give up and turn around so I keep going.
I keep nudging my husband to wake up. I desperately pray for him to wake up and take over driving. At the very least take over the kids behaviors in the back. But this is not something I can do on my own. In fact if I try too hard he might wake with anger and, becoming aggravated by the trials of the trip, use his fatherly authority to call off the trip all together. So I keep driving.
The only thing I can do is keep driving the car to get my family safely to our destination in the hopes that eventually he will wake up and take over.