Ever Watching

It was growing dusk.  When I left the house in the late afternoon I believed I would be home before dark.  Now a gray cloak was dropping from the sky.  By the time I pulled into the drive, darkness covered the earth.  As I drove up a small hill, and then descended, I could see the porch light in the distance.  Nearly there my mother opened the door and stepped outside.  I pulled in, turned off the engine, and looked up.  Our eyes met.  We smiled.  All was well.  I had come home.

As I lay in bed later that night, picturing my mother looking for me, I thought about the trumpet sound which signals the event of Jesus meeting every child of God in the air. In I Thessalonians 4:16-18 we read, “For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God.  First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves.  Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  So encourage each other with these words.”  

Christians around the world are looking for this event.  Especially as the days grow darker around us, as we watch the world turn its back on God, as people are deciding their own ways are best, we strain to see Him coming.  As my mother longed to see the car’s headlights coming over the hill, so you and I yearn to see the One we love so much coming in the air.  Imagine the joy that will illuminate our faces and His.  We will have travelled far during the days of our lives on earth.  We will have experienced the darkness of ungodliness descend around us.  We will have anticipated in earnest the sound of the trumpet.  

Just as my arrival brought peace, relief, and joy, the arrival of Jesus will bring an even greater peace and overwhelming joy.  We will join Him.  We will be on our way to our eternal home.  Darkness for all who know Him will be no more.

“Oh, what joy for those who disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight.  Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”  Romans 4:7-8 

“For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”  Romans 10:13