When we know an important, exciting event will happen in the coming days ahead, our joy and enthusiasm skyrockets as we plan for it.  We wake each day knowing there are “this many more days” until the event will happen that know will blow our minds with joy and happiness.  We are filled with anticipation as we prepare and plan for “that day.”  We dream about that day when we will finally move from our imagination about what it will be like to the reality of it.  What is “it”?

It might be a new promotion to a new work place in another town.  It might be a new baby coming in to our family.  It could be welcoming a family member coming back home from military service for months in a faraway country.  It might be a wedding of your child to a person you love, knowing this person will care for your child as much as you do.  It could be your wedding!

To a child, it is the celebration of their upcoming birthday, Christmas, the return of mom or dad from service, or a grand vacation to Disney.  Days are checked off on the calendar daily until that day finally arrives!  To a child (and grownups) it seems to take “for-evvvvver”.

No matter what lies ahead, what we most anticipate with joy occupies our minds.  Our first thoughts at the beginning of each new day are of what we long for with joy and gladness.  We literally count the days until that day when we can experience what we have been waiting for to happen. 

But, what if you don’t know when “that day” is going to happen?

Luke 12, The Message

When the Master Shows Up

^35-38 “Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on! Be like house servants waiting for their master to come back from his honeymoon, awake and ready to open the door when he arrives and knocks. Lucky the servants whom the master finds on watch! He’ll put on an apron, sit them at the table, and serve them a meal, sharing his wedding feast with them. It doesn’t matter what time of the night he arrives; they’re awake—and so blessed!

^39-40 “You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be lazy and careless. Just when you don’t expect him, the Son of Man will show up.”

⁴¹ Peter said, “Master, are you telling this story just for us? Or is it for everybody?”

^42-46 The Master said, “Let me ask you: Who is the dependable manager, full of common sense, that the master puts in charge of his staff to feed them well and on time? He is a blessed man if when the master shows up he’s doing his job. But if he says to himself, ‘The master is certainly taking his time,’ begins beating up on the servants and maids, throws parties for his friends, and gets drunk, the master will walk in when he least expects it, give him the thrashing of his life, and put him back in the kitchen peeling potatoes.

^47-48 “The servant who knows what his master wants and ignores it, or insolently does whatever he pleases, will be thoroughly thrashed. But if he does a poor job through ignorance, he’ll get off with a slap on the hand. Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

There is a Day coming, when we least expect it, which will culminate the greatest and most important relationship we will ever have—our relationship with God, the Father, through Jesus Christ, His Son.  This relationship of relentless love, undeserved mercy, and limitless grace fills us with anticipation as we are told Jesus is coming back soon to bring us home, to our eternal home, a place He has specifically prepared for us, where He resides.

Jesus is preparing for that day.  “…I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:3

Are we preparing?  Are we anticipating “that day”?  Are getting ready and looking to the skies with joy for His return?  Are our shirts and shoes on—ready to leave at moment’s notice?  When we wake each day, are we counting the days until He comes? 

What occupies our minds most is what we most look forward to in this life!  Right?  No matter what God has called us to do, will He find us doing it when Jesus comes? Will He say, “Well done, now come with Me” on that day when we least expect Him?

Jesus gives his followers (and us) words to pause, ponder, and pray about it today.  Even as I write this, I’m reminded of the many hymns sung in my growing up years that didn’t mean as much to me as a child then.  But later when my grandparents, devoted believers and anticipators of His Coming, passed from this life to the next life with Jesus, I understood.  Now, I see and hear in my memory the look on their faces and longing in their voices to see Jesus face to face on “that day”.  I am grateful for their teaching about “that day” of joy and peace with no more pain or sorrow. 

What a day that will be
When my Jesus I shall see
And I look upon his face
The one who saved me by his grace
When he takes me by the hand
And leads me through the Promised Land
What a day, glorious day that will be…

There will be Day when Jesus will come before some of us have passed.  Are we ready?  Is the way we live here and now preparing us with anticipated excitement for His coming?  Are “counting the days” with joy or fear?  That depends on our relationship with God now.  Pause and reflect with a heart check:

Is our first thought of the day gratitude for what Jesus has done to save us? 

Is our first thought love for Him and for others?  What is uppermost in our minds leads our behaviors throughout the day.  Who we think about most is who we want to be with always with a desire to please them in all we do. 

How to stay ready:  Seek God first. Listen to His Son, Jesus.  Be led by His Holy Spirit.  Here is just some of the “treasures” of thought to store in our hearts, minds and souls in readiness for “that day”—

• “We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
• “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
• “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
• “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Acts 16:31
• “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
• “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Our identity as a child of God means that we rely fully on God and trust in His plan for our lives.” 1 John 3:2
• “…All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” –Jesus, Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus IS coming back, you know.  What will we be thinking and doing, being and living on “that day”? 

Lord,

I believe and I will always tell of how you saved me and set me free by removing my sins as “far as the east is from the west.”  I rejoice in the legacy of teaching from grandparents and parents who look forward to “that day” when you will come back to claim your own who believe and call you Lord.  I haven’t fully arrived and still need you to work on me.  Cleanse our hearts in readiness for your coming.  Remove all that does not belong.  Renew our minds to think more like you so we can be more like you.  Refresh our souls today with your new mercies.  Restore the joy of your salvation at work within us as we continue to serve in your Name for your glory.  What a day that will be…

In Jesus Name, Amen

Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day…