In Jesus? time, families usually lived in clusters of buildings called insulas.
These clusters were built around a central courtyard. Grandparents, cousins, uncles, and aunts all lived and interacted together in the insula.
As sons married, they added to the insula. After asking a girl to marry him, the son would return to his village and build new rooms onto his father?s home. The son, anxious to be married, waited for the day when his father declared that the building was complete. Then he could finally marry his bride and bring her to their new home.
Jesus presented a beautiful picture of heaven when he said, ?In my Father?s house are many rooms?I am going there to prepare a place for you? (John 14:2—3). This word-picture presented Jesus as a bridegroom, preparing new rooms for his followers in the insula of heaven.
When Jesus described his second coming, he again used the picture of a young bridegroom, waiting for his father?s approval to return for his bride: ?No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, not the Son, but only the Father? (Matt. 24:36).
By using the familiar images of an insula, Jesus helped his followers to understand the kingdom of God—a household of faith where God?s family lives in close community.
