As A Thief

Stay awake - alert!  You have no idea what day

your Master will show up.  But you do know this:

If the homeowner had known what time of night

the burgler would arrive, he would have been

there with his dogs to prevent the break-in.

Be vigilant just like that.  You have no idea

when the Son of Man is going to show up.

Matthew 24:42-44

 

A young friend of mine (we'll call him John) has a very good friend (we'll call her Beth) who lives with her new baby in a small apartment in Pennsylvania--pretty much in the projected path of Hurricane Sandy.  John and his girlfriend have been preparing their home for whatever amount of the storm hits here in Virginia.  After securing their place, John thought of Beth and gave her a call.  "Hey - are you ready for the storm?"  The answer came back, "What storm?"  At first John thought she was kidding, but it soon became very evident that she had no idea that there was a Hurricane Sandy, much less that it was headed in her general direction.  John gave her the Cliff notes version of hurricane preparedness, and when she panicked, he told her to just take the baby and go stay with her parents, who hopefully would be more aware of the weather than she was.

With all the hype on the news, on the Internet, on television, and particularly on social media sites, it doesn't hardly seem possible that there could be an adult in the eastern United States who does not know about the approaching storm.  My guess?  This girl is not alone - there are probably quite a few people out there blissfully going about their everyday routine, completely unaware of the three storms that are converging on each other and on them.

Jesus talked a great deal about His second coming when He was on the earth the first time, admonishing the people that the surprise factor would be akin to a "thief in the night."  If any of us knew for certain that our house was going to be targeted for a break-in tomorrow, we would call out the dogs, the neighbors, the police, and anyone else we could think of to be there to prevent the robbery.  But if you don't know, you don't take those precautions. 

When I was growing up, sermons about the Second Coming of Christ were a regular occurence in my home church.  When I was a young adult, I still heard them, just not quite as often.  Now? I never hear a sermon about Jesus coming again.  It is the great forgotten topic in most Christian churches.  So - just because I never hear about it or never think about it, does that mean that Christ's coming is not going to happen?  Hmm... that sounds like the ostrich-with-head-in-sand approach of the young girl in Pennsylvania.  I'm not sure that God would use the phrase, "Ignorance is no excuse."  But I am pretty sure that He would trumpet the message:  "Wake up!  Be alert!  Get Ready!  I've promised that I will come again, and I meant exactly what I said."  Food for thought on a blustery, storm-approaching afternoon.