So, I was puttering about the house yesterday (doing laundry, and running the vacuum) in my pajamas, with a white mineral mud mask smeared all over my face.
The thought popped into my head: “Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if someone happened to show up at the front door right now!!”
Then another thought popped into my head: “What if it was Jesus who showed up at the front door right now? Would I be embarrassed to go answer the front door and greet Jesus in my pajamas with a mineral mud mask smeared all over my face??”
Throughout my life I have heard many sermons about Jesus coming back again, and most pose the question: “If Jesus were to suddenly show up, would you be embarrassed?”
As I was running the vacuum in my pj’s, mineral mud mask smeared all over my face, my immediate “blink” reaction was: “Oh, that wouldn’t be any big deal at all. Me and Jesus spend all day every day together. He’s totally used to it!”
Then the thought occurred to me: “But when Jesus comes back, he’s not going to be standing on my front porch and ringing the doorbell. He’s going to be coming back in the clouds. And everyone who has trusted in Jesus for salvation will be swept up off this earth and into the air to meet him!
“If I was to be swept up out of my house at this very moment, in my pj’s with this mud mask smeared all over my face, would I be embarrassed?? After all, everyone else would see me! They would all see me looking like this!”
Once again, my immediate “blink” reaction: “Oh, that wouldn’t be any big deal at all. Jesus himself does not know when the Father will tell him ‘It’s time, go now!’ So, Jesus will be just as surprised as me. In fact, I think me and Jesus would have a good laugh together about me being swept up out of my house looking like this!”
“But,” the thought persisted, “what about everyone else?? Wouldn’t you be embarrassed for all of them to see you looking like this??”
And my mental response: “No. Because they all will be looking just as ridiculous themselves! We all will be caught unaware. In fact, I think we all will have a good laugh together, as we are all caught up in the air with each other, seeing the state each of us are in! That’s going to be hilarious!!”
Then I realized … that’s not going to happen. Nobody is going to see anybody looking ridiculous when we are all suddenly caught up in the air together. Because the end of the verse says: “And we will be changed.”
In that moment … in that “blink of an eye” … when that heavenly trumpet sounds, Jesus returns, and we are all suddenly caught up to meet him … in that moment we will be changed!
No pajamas. No mud mask smeared all over the face.
Instant glorified body! Whoo Hoo!!
Now that’s something to get excited about!
“In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” – 1 Corinthians 15:52
Hubby harvested the wheat this week. On Monday – Labor Day – I posted some thoughts about labor … one of them being Revelation 14:13.
Lo and behold, the very next verses are about harvesting the earth, like harvesting wheat.
Check it out:
“I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one ‘like a son of man’ [this is Jesus!] with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, ‘Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.’ So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.”
– Revelation 14:14-16
(As a side thought: In the Revelation passage – Revelation 14:14-20 – it is Jesus himself who harvests everyone who has trusted in him for salvation; a mighty angel harvests those who have not. Jesus himself gathers to himself all who belong to him. A mighty angel harvests everyone who does not belong to Jesus … and these are thrown into the “winepress of God’s wrath.”)
Here is the corresponding passage in Daniel:
“In my vision I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man [this is Jesus!], coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
– Daniel 7:13-14
Can’t conclude this blog post without this passage:
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that , we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
– 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Even so come Lord Jesus!!
