Excerpted from Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room by Nancy Guthrie

It can be great fun to put up a tent in your backyard to play in or sleep in. Imagine what it would be like for someone else to put up a tent in your backyard and begin living there—right in your backyard! In a sense, John says Jesus did just that. “So the Word became human and made his home among us” (John 1:14). The Greek word translated “made his home” is the word for “set up a tent.” This verse is saying that God became a human person who set up his tent in our backyard and moved in.

If another family were to put up a tent in your backyard to live in, they would probably use your bathroom and have their meals around your table. They would be with you almost all the time, and no doubt their lives would intertwine with yours. This is what Jesus did when he became human. He made his home with us. He did this so that his life would be intertwined with ours—so that we would share our lives with him and so we could see him up close and really know him.

When we see God up close in the person of Jesus, what do we see? John wrote, “He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness” (John 1:14). Imagine having someone living with you who always loved perfectly and who was completely dependable to do what he said he would do. Doesn’t that seem like the kind of person you would want to have making himself at home with your family?

John writes that many people of Jesus’ day were not so happy to have Jesus right there with them. “He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:11-12). While many rejected him, there were those who believed and accepted him. To believe and accept Jesus is to invite him to make his home with you and among you. It is to welcome him in, not as a guest, but as a permanent part of the family.

Prayer

You have come, Jesus, to make your home among us.
And we welcome you! We believe you. We accept you.
Make yourself at home in our home.

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is
now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his
people. God himself will be with them.” – Revelation 21:3