HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

For Lori and I, November is the month with a number of birthdays.  Lori’s late father and her youngest brother have the same date of birth in November.  Lori has two cousins that have a birthday in November and I have one whose birthday is in November.  Finally, our two daughter’s oldest children were each born on my birthday in November.  Those precious grandchildren will be 10 and 5 this year!

For me, when I think of all these birthdays I get a little sentimental.  I am thankful for each of the people whom I just mentioned and there are a few folks in our district who also have birthdays in November for which I am deeply thankful for as well.  Recently, I was on a particularly long drive in our district back to Billings.  Alone at night, I would generally have the stereo on in the rig heading home.  This particular night, however, I was struck again by the stars in the sky and I just drove along for quite a while in silence — worship, literally, just enjoying the moon and the stars and letting the Lord take control of my thoughts.  Even though it was dark I kept having my thoughts drawn again to the second coming of Christ.  I remembered some of the words to an old hymn I hadn’t sung in decades, but one we sang a lot during Sunday night services.  The title was “What If It Were Today.”  The lyrics say –

As much as I look forward to all the birthdays to be celebrated in November, I eagerly anticipate Christ’s Second Coming.  Not as some “pie in the sly” ethereal thing, but as the culmination of what Christ did when He died and rose again defeating Satan, sin, and death.   Can you imagine what that will be like if this happens in your lifetime and mine?  We’re told in God’s Word that nobody knows the day nor the hour (Mt. 24:36) of Christ’s Second Coming, but that it will be like a thief in the night (I Thess 5:1-4).  In the chapter just previous to this, I Thessalonians 4:16-18 we’re told when the Lord comes back it’ll be personal, visible, and with great power and glory.  AND, it is to be an encouragement to the believer!  I don’t know when Christ will come again, but I do know this.  His return may be soon and His return can and hopefully does affect and impact my life today — in how I live, what I give my life’s energy to, and what captivates my thoughts.  I want to be aware of the things happening in the world that signal His soon return.  I want to be ready to share the good news of Christ with those God is already at work in, in their lives, and I want to be available to be used by God as He sees fit.

Much of this doesn’t happen if I am diverted to lesser things.  Much of this doesn’t happen if I get caught up in even good things that keep me from the best things God has ready for me to engage in (Eph. 2:10).  Perhaps this month — in the busyness of Thanksgiving and getting ready for the Christmas and New Year festivities — you will take time or make time to allow your heart, and thoughts, to be drawn heavenward to think through what it will be like when Christ comes again and how that fact can have an impact on your family, life, and ministry even now!

~Jonathan