Ready or not the day is coming (Luke 21:25-28)

SCRIPTURE: Luke 21:25-28 (TM) – larger reading: Luke 21:25-36

"It will seem like all hell has broken loose - sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, in an uproar and everyone all over the world in a panic, the wind knocked out of them by the threat of doom, the powers-that-be quaking. "And then - then! - they'll see the Son of Man welcomed in grand style - a glorious welcome! When all this starts to happen, up on your feet. Stand tall with your heads high. Help is on the way!"

STORY:

After church, where she had been taught about the Second Coming, a little girl was quizzing her mother. "Mommy, do you believe Jesus will come back?" "Yes."  "Today?"   "Yes."    "In a few minutes?"   "Yes, dear."   "Mommy, would you comb my hair?"  

OBSERVATION:

My standard reply to the person who asks: “Hey, preach, when are you going to preach about the second coming of Jesus?” is, “When I get everybody believing that he came the first time!”

We cannot deny either reality, but we kind of live our life, sometimes, as if neither has or will take place… don’t we?

We are breathing down on 2013 Christmas Day. It is only 15 days away – usually marked by how many more shopping days are left. Some believe that if God would place a heavenly countdown clock in the sky more people would believe.

Really? Do you really think so? I have my doubts. Just take look around you at the number of people who go out of their way to “prove” that Jesus didn’t come the first time. How they can deny reality is beyond me, but they do. You’ve met them as have I. Some spouses to some of our most involved members fall within this category.

And then there is this other group of folk who think why bother getting ready it will happen when it happens. Their thinking, placed within another context, goes something like this: “Shoot fire, Christmas Day is going to arrive if I prepare for it or not so why bother. Therefore, I won’t do any decorating or gift buying or baking or card writing/sending. There is nothing that I can do to make it happen or quicken its arrival. So just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.”

I’m kind of thinking that this is how most husbands approach Christmas. And, I’m kind of thinking that is how many spouses approach the entire religious experience … it is a woman thing … just relax, sit back and enjoy the ride. She will do all the planning and preparing.

Christmas is coming and there isn’t anything that we really need to do to prepare for its arrival. If we are prepared or not it is on its way… as is his second arrival. We just need to have our hair combed.

PRAYER:

Lord, may we live our life so well that it doesn’t really matter if it is today or 10 years or 100 years or 1,000 years from now.