My wife and I recently walked a trail. This particular hike was on private property on Kauai, Hawaii. Following our GPS, we made it to the trailhead. And that is where our story begins. We entered the gate, walked the trail, and arrived at the path’s destination. At the trail’s end was a beautiful place that reminded me of something Jesus promised.
Jesus said, “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way to where I am going.” (John 14:1–4, CSB)
I pondered that verse on the walk back, especially about Jesus preparing a place. The thought struck me that not only has Jesus prepared the place, but He has also prepared the gate and the path.
A Prepared Gate
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.” (Matthew 7:13–14, CSB)
Jesus uses a metaphor to describe the beginning and path of faith in Him. It is a narrow gate we enter and a difficult way at times, as opposed to going through the wide gate and along the broad way of the world.
A sign was at the gate of our trail that day in Kauai. The owner of the property required everyone choosing to enter the gate to fill out a waiver of liability online. If the form was not completed, you were trespassing if you walked the trail. The same can be said of entering the prepared gate of Jesus.
Jesus taught, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:7–10, CSB)
Many try to join the path without going through the gate. It doesn’t work. Either the path becomes too difficult to travel, or the destination is not heaven. Let’s be clear. The prepared gate is accepting all of Jesus and receiving Him into our lives in submission and repentance. That is the gate; there is no other. We can live a Christian life, live a good life, be better than our peers, avoid what we consider the major sins, and still not arrive at Christ’s prepared destination.
In Matthew, Jesus tells a parable which begins, “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.” (Matthew 22:2, CSB) The thrust of the parable is how many of the invited guests refused. So the King told his servants, “The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests.” (Matthew 22:8–10, CSB) But the parable didn’t end there.
“When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:11–14, CSB) Like a person avoiding the narrow gate, the party crasher entered without accepting the king’s clothes. When we accept Christ’s invitation, He clothes us in garments of righteousness. But we only recieve those clothes when we enter through Christ’s prepared narrow gate.
A Prepared Path
Betty and I have walked all kinds of trails and paths. From a root and rock challenging trail in Door County. A paved path along the ocean in Kauai. A dirt path with several steep parts on the way back to a waterfall in Tennessee. A trail that went through miles of burnt-out forest in Montana. Each trail was different, with its own beauty and challenges. Someone had blazed each of the trails. Markers and signs added. In some places, ladders, stairs, and bridges were constructed where needed. The trail was prepared for us.
In truth, many trod the narrow path of following Christ. We are not the trailblazers or seeking to find our way through the wilderness. We walk a prepared path of faith. While the path of faith others walk has similar terrain, beauty, and challenges, our path is uniquely ours. This is not a path of our creation, or even our wants and desires; it is the path of faith Christ has prepared for us.
Again in John 10, “Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:1–5, CSB)
Jesus calls us by name; he leads us on the path as a shepherd leads their sheep. We are not accidental tourists of faith. We strive to follow Christ as we walk the path under our feet. It is a prepared path. Some parts are smooth and wide. Other parts are difficult to walk on because of rocks or messy, slick mud. There are narrow sections. And parts where another trail invites us, and we must choose to stay on Christ’s prepared path.
There are also times when the circumstances of life invade our trail with clouds of pestering mosquitoes, hot sun, pouring rain, or bears (yes, we have encountered bears on our hikes). While these are not part of the prepared trail, they do not catch Jesus by surprise. “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, CSB) That includes the challenges the world puts in our path.
This path is prepared for us by Christ. We know there is a destination. There are signs along the way to remind us, like the signs along our trail in Kauai, that point the way to the Stone Dam. The path calls us to persistence and grace. Persistence to see our path through to the end. Grace to understand that the challenges others face on the path may not be ours.
The path is prepared, and we walk it one step at a time.
A Prepared Destination
The best hiking trails have incredible rewards along or at the trail’s end. For some paths, the reward is in the doing. But some paths take us to waterfalls, stunning vistas, or a lighthouse on a rocky coastline. For our walk in Kauai, we only had some vague idea of the destination, something called Stone Dam.
On the last leg of the path, we could see a small pavilion in the distance. We passed an entryway with a sign indicating the destination was a peace garden. We approached the pavilion, but our vision was pulled left into a shallow valley, and probably one of the most beautiful scenes we’ve encountered. In the distance was a stone dam with water cascading over it. On the left, a small stream babbled and splashed over rocks. A path wound through the valley of green grass and colorful native plants. It was a peaceful, prepared place.
Jesus is preparing a place for you and me if we enter the narrow gate and walk the path. And, like the Stone Dam, we only get vague references to the reality of that prepared place.
I can’t describe heaven to you. We only get clues and glimpses in the scripture. Everything we understand about it is vague and incomplete; its ultimate reality will blow us away.
Let’s return again to what Jesus said, “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way to where I am going.” (John 14:1–4, CSB)
Being with Jesus is paradise enough for me. What the place He is preparing looks like, though, will far surpass the peaceful beauty of the Stone Mill garden, or the wonder of the deep vista of Yellowstone valley, the roar of Abram Falls, the gentleness of Spruce Flats Falls, the majestic vista of Pike’s Peak, or the peace of Jordan’s Pond. I can only imagine, and yet, nothing I can imagine will be close to the reality of what Christ has prepared for us.
“But as it is written, What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived— God has prepared these things for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9, CSB)
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