Be Ready

Have you ever missed out on something wonderful because you weren’t ready; weren’t prepared; or weren’t at the right place at the right time?  It’s happened to me.  For example, just tonight around dusk, I saw six or seven deer in my neighbor’s yard back through the pine trees.  I walked casually to the window to get a better look, and there, right at my bird feeder, close up, was a four-point buck!  I ran to get my phone in the other room but by the time I got back, the buck was ambling away in the back of my lot.  I didn’t know the buck was there and I missed my chance to get a great picture!

I also recently missed a great chance to take a picture of a pileated woodpecker that came to my suet feeder.  It’s a rare treat to see this big guy who is the size of a crow.  He’s come in only once or twice in the 10 years I’ve lived here and wouldn’t you know, my blinds were down and I wasn’t able to get a good shot!  I need to raise my blinds the first thing in the morning, so that I’ll be prepared if he comes in again!

I missed catching a plane once because I was late getting to the gate.  Even though it wasn’t my fault, I still missed out.  I was on my way to Japan in 2002 for the first time since living there in the fifties.  It was springtime, but we had snow in Columbus the day I was to leave so my flight was delayed, sitting on the tarmac, and I missed my connecting flight in Los Angeles.  I remember running through the airport and I did actually arrive before the plane had taxied away, but the gate was closed and my luggage wouldn’t have made it.  It was a close call but I wasn’t where I was supposed to be at the right time! 

I have also missed trains and buses in Japan on my way to school because of late starts or busy connections.  I wasn’t on the platform or at the bus stop in time!  I have missed appointments and even a party once, because I had the wrong date in my mind.  It’s disappointing to plan on something and then fail to enjoy it because of a miscommunication or bad timing.  

There are countless other examples of missing out because of poor planning or lack of concern, but the ONE MOST IMPORTANT event that I DEFINITELY do not want to miss is the day Christ returns for His bride, the Church.  I am already prepared, waiting and watching for this day!  No one knows when that day will be but we do know that Christ will return.  It will happen when we least expect it, like a thief in the night.  I Thessalonians 5:2 says, “For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape”.

On the day that Christ returns, every knee will bow to Him.  “For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.  It is written, ‘As surely as I live’, says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God’.  So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God”. (Romans 14:10-12)  It is our personal responsibility to live for the Lord now, while there is still time; there will be no second chances!  There will not be opportunity to choose Christ or reconsider on the day He returns!  “But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation”.  I Thessalonians 5:8

“For the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever”.  I Thessalonians 4:16-17

There will be no persuading the Lord of right living at this time. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you, Away from me, you evildoers”. (Matthew 7:21-23)

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing”. (I Thessalonians 5:11)  Do what you need to do to be prepared for the Lord’s return.  Read your Bible; talk to your minister; find a Christian friend who can mentor you; if you have not already done so, give your heart to the Lord and live for Him!  Be ready! It will be a picture-perfect day!