Ready: Prepared for Action

Advent{ures}: Let's Go to Bethlehem

 

Be ready for whatever comes, dressed for action and with your lamps lit, like servants who are waiting for their master to come back from a wedding feast. When he comes and knocks, they will open the door for him at once.  How happy are those servants whose master finds them awake and ready when he returns! I tell you, he will take off his coat, have them sit down, and will wait on them. How happy they are if he finds them ready, even if he should come at midnight or even later!  And you can be sure that if the owner of a house knew the time when the thief would come, he would not let the thief break into his house. And you, too, must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting him. (Luke 12:35-40 Good News Translation)

 

Preparing for Christmas is easy. Just do what I do every year; rely on traditions and expectations of the family and culture around me. Readying myself for Christ’s return is difficult. To be honest, most days, I’m not aware that His coming is imminent. My life is consumed by the present. I must confess the whole idea of being ready causes me to panic. Will I be ready?

I feel like Jesus is saying, “Ready or not, here I come.” Will His return be like hide and seek? Will Jesus find me hiding from Him or hiding in Him?

Therefore let all the faithful pray to you
while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
will not reach them.
You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.

(Psalm 32:6-7 NIV)