Stranger Danger

You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.

Psalm 16:11 (NLT)

It was my sophomore year at Pacific Union College. I had my roommate all picked out and ready to go. He had been a friend of mine for over a decade, so we were excited to room together. However, things did not go according to plan. When we arrived to get into our room, the room assignment list showed that we each had different roommates. I asked the dean, and he said he had no record of the two of us requesting to room together, so he randomly assigned us somebody. No matter how much we protested, the dean wasn’t going to change the list. So, we went our separate ways to find out our fates. I entered the room to find that my new roommate was already moved in. He was from Japan and spoke barely any English. On top of that, he had a hotplate going and was cooking squid. Yup. You read that right. He was cooking squid in our room. The smell was not pleasant, and it hung around for days afterwards, too. From there, things got worse. My roommate was an early morning type of person. I was a night owl. Whenever he was up, he was not quiet, and he had friends come over. He brought a ton of Japanese tv shows and movies on DVD, which he watched endlessly. Basically, it was not a great experience. At the end of the first quarter, I petitioned the dean to move out, and he allowed me to move down the hall with another friend of mine.

Living with a stranger can be down-right awkward. Sometimes it can work out. But, often times, the experience is similar to what I went through.

Our verse today talks about our eternal Roommate (if you will). Those of us who accept Jesus as our Savior will live with Him forever. However, it won’t be awkwardness, Japanese tv shows, or squid cooking on a hotplate. As the Psalmist states, there will be “pleasures of living with you forever.” In other words, living with God will be an amazing experience every step of the way. There won’t be bad days, just excellent ones. The best part is that our life with Jesus isn’t supposed to wait until He returns. He desires that relationship now. Eternity has already begun for us. Therefore, there’s no time like the present to get to enjoy our Heavenly Roommate more.