Making Your Home a Foretaste of Heaven
By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
Proverbs 24:3–4
Who wouldn’t love to be raised in a home like that, where “the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches”? Maybe not with fancy, expensive things, but with intangible riches like warmth, calm, sincerity, forgiveness, laughter, and gentle conversation.
Some people are blessed to grow up in homes like that. Others grow up in homes that feel more like the bitter aftertaste of hell than a sweet foretaste of heaven. But none of us are stuck with repeating any past that fell short of comforting and affirming. Jesus loves to give new beginnings to wounded people, renewing us in the spirit of our minds (Eph. 4:23). And he loves to help us carry that renewal forward, creating homes that prepare our families for a better future.
Right now—this ordinary right now—can be your moment for committing to build a life-giving legacy for your future generations. With all the other ways you might enrich your family for their distant future, one of the best is creating a culture in your home right now that overflows “with all precious and pleasant riches.”
What is a culture? Basically, a culture is “just the way we do things around here”—the assumptions, the tone, the vibe of your family, flavored by the beliefs you revere together. And your family culture can prove to everyone who comes there, especially to your children who may still live there, how good it feels to belong, both to Jesus and to one another. We call this gospel culture. It flows out of gospel doctrine.
A family isn’t Christian because they call themselves Christian. A truly Christian family is one in which the gospel culture they share makes it almost feel like Jesus lives there too. In an angry world where everyone is skating on thin ice, a gospel-culture family is a safe haven. A Christian home.
It can be your home.
Yes, it’ll take some doing. A home that exudes gospel culture requires some thought. When we were a young dad and mom, we literally asked each other the question, “What is ultimate reality? And how can our home be a place where we and our children experience that to the fullest?” That was our first step.
Our second step brought us closer to the answer. Moses asked God to “please show me your glory,” and the Lord answered, “I will make all my goodness pass before you” (Exod. 33:18–19). So we started realizing this: we were raising our family in a universe where ultimate reality is the glorious goodness of God.
From there, we took the next step. If ultimate reality is the glorious goodness of God, then how can we, the parents setting the tone of this young family, make it easy for our children to grow up believing that? How can our little home feel like God’s glorious goodness isn’t off at the other end of the universe but is right here in our living room, at our breakfast table, in the backyard? That’s gospel doctrine creating gospel culture for a family.
So we started dreaming about how to bend everything in our home life toward reflecting God’s glorious goodness. We didn’t get radical, but we focused, we simplified, we even had fun figuring it out. And God was there, leading us, just as you can count on him to lead you as well.
Here are two concrete specifics we commend to you for filling your home with “all precious and pleasant riches.” They are well within reach.
1. Treasure God’s Word
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16). It doesn’t say, “Let the word of Christ form a sidebar in your home occasionally.” Only the word of Christ can enrich your family in ways that will still matter long into the future.
Find ways to make it obvious that the Word of God is your dearest treasure. Children surrounded by reverence for the Bible may resist the gospel, even for years. But they cannot unsee the beauty you will show them.
When our children were young, we didn’t have Bible time every night. We sometimes felt an early “tubby time” or a wild wrestling match with Daddy in the living room did more for our children’s sense of the goodness of God than another after-dinner sit-down could do. Give yourself the freedom to decide on the fly what will best nurture a family culture of love for the gospel.
There are so many other opportunities to consider:
Dad and Mom can discuss together, at the dinner table or in the car, what they are discovering in their own Bible reading. It’s another way to sow gospel seeds, as the children overhear the conversation.
Explain before any Bible reading begins that there will be Skittles or M&Ms as rewards for correct answers to observation questions from the story.
Pass around paper and crayons, inviting the children to draw a picture of the Bible story as they listen. Then afterwards they can share their drawings and explain what they liked best about the story.
Set aside time during the summer for special Bible projects. Jani has done this for our grandchildren. She taught them the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the heroes of the book of Judges, the Beatitudes, and more. “One generation shall commend your works to another” (Ps. 145:4). It’s a major way the gospel culture in your family will deepen and last.
Create your own strategies, way better than ours. But the point is, make the Bible the sacred center of your home.
2. Treasure One Another
“Outdo one another in showing honor,” the Bible says (Rom. 12:10). What an uplifting, inspiring culture to build in a family!
This brutal world can take the heart right out of us, can’t it? It treats us like tiny components in a vast social machine. But in our homes, how wonderfully different! We cherish our children deeply and tenderly. Each one is included and belongs in this place, simply because they’re family.
No one else can treasure your children as meaningfully as you can. You have been positioned by God himself to raise your children as no one else can or will, to be there every day with them, and to set a high tone of cheerful gratitude for everyone in your family. Doing the dishes together, playing Connect 4, taking a walk, whatever. In all our doing with them, let’s make sure we always place a high priority on making them feel wanted, to “outdo” each other in “showing honor” to our children. That’s a gospel culture home. It is life-giving, not life-depleting.
Jesus said that when he came, “the kingdom of heaven” came (Matt. 4:17). The kingdom of heaven is down here, where we all live. That’s why we believe simple family life in all our homes can feel like a foretaste of heaven. Not that it’s easy to accomplish. Creating such a refuge doesn’t happen automatically. It’s not just handed to us along with the keys to a new house. It takes moment-by-moment sacrifice. But a truly Christian home is so worth it. And the Lord has come here to help us all experience it.
Your home can be where troubled souls find peace, weary hearts find rest, hungry bodies find refreshment, lonely pilgrims find friendship, wounded spirits find healing, and a happy family shares laughter. Lots of laughter.
Why not ask God to help you make your home this foretaste of heaven? He will faithfully give you the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge you need. And you will fill your home with all the precious and pleasant riches of the life that is truly life—a glorious inheritance to enrich your future family.
Excerpted with permission from To the Tenth Generation by Ray and Jani Ortlund. Copyright 2024, B&H Publishing.
