Waiting

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional: 

WAITING FOR WHOM WE LOVE

...to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.  I Thess. 1:10

            Getting ready for company that I enjoy is a lot of fun.  Though it also means considerable work, the labor is obscured by the anticipation of being together with people I love.   Just before they are expected, everything is double checked.  If their arrival is late in the evening, the coffee is ready to drip, a cobbler is usually baking in the oven, a candle is lit in the kitchen, and if it's summertime, a vase full of bluish/lavender hydrangeas from my garden sit on their bedside table. All my senses are engaged as I listen for their car, and then, a knock on the door.

            Since Jesus hasn't visited earth during my lifetime, it's hard to believe He's really coming.  It's easier to coast along and convince myself that it has little chance of happening.  Why go to all the trouble to prepare for someone I've never seen, especially when I have no idea when He will appear?  It's like being on suspended alert with a vague promise of a main event. 

            What do you say to such logic?  If you've got your face in the headlines and your Bible open, you'd shake me and tell me to think twice!  This could very well be the generation that experiences the rapture.  Signs are everywhere and though scripture says that we can not know the exact hour, we are given signs to clue us in as to the general time of His arrival on the kingdom clock. 

            The earth groans for the commencement of end times and the eventual restoration of Eden.  Oh, for King Jesus to reign one day!  The air seems electric and the fragility of mankind has never seemed so fragile.

           Having once had an impersonal faith, I was unable to sustain the passion of living with my eyes glued to the skies.  The discipline required to stay ready and to watch for His appearing failed on account of my deadened heart.  Not anymore.  I'm breathing prayers, dozens of times a day, for His coming.

Let me live this day as if it were my last.  Even so come, Lord Jesus.  Amen