Are we ready for him? He comes when a tribulation has just ended. Things seem to go from bad to worse rather than getting better. Everything seems to succumb to darkness. All sources of light fail, sun, moon, and stars. The very heavens themselves are shaken. We take these to be fixed and unmovable. This sort of darkness can push us in two very different directions. It can make us less attentive to the LORD's coming because of fear. Or it can make us long and look for it even more because, really, who else can we turn to in times like these?
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.
We can't just wait for disaster to come and then embrace his words. We should be familiar with them already. When the heavens themselves are shaken it is not the easiest time to trust in his words even though it is the time when they can provide the most comfort. If we wait until tribulation we risk being unable to trust in his words. We risk becoming an everlasting horror rather than shining brightly with the wisdom that can only come from his words. Even in the midst of all of that darkness his word can be a lamp for our feet and a light for our path (Cf. Psa. 119:105). But it is good to know where the flashlight is before the storm. It is important to know that the batteries are charged and that it can provide the light we need. Then we do turn to it even in the worst of times.
Jesus is coming. Are we ready to meet him? He is near! Let us not be distracted by anything going on in the world. His enemies will be made his footstool in time eventually. But even now we are being consecrated and made perfect by his power and love. We don't know the day or the hour when the end will come. But we can cling to his words today, right now. If we do we need not fear his coming, worried that we will be everlasting horrors. Instead we rejoice to see him come:
And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds'
with great power and glory,
and then he will send out the angels
and gather his elect from the four winds,
from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.
With him at our righthand we shall not be disturbed!
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