Seventeen and Counting - Kept in the dark

So when will Jesus come again? 

You already know; the day will be the most unexpected. 

It will be ‘like a thief in the night’. 

People will say, ‘everything is secure’, then disaster will begin. 

Like the first pangs of birth, there will be no going back. 

You already know this and have nothing to fear. 

You live in the light and all is clearly illuminated. 

At night people get drunk and fall into stupor. 

We stay clear-headed and alert, protected by faith and love. 

We wear the helmet of confidence, knowing that we are completely safe.    

1 Thessalonians 5

I return to the theme of 'staying alert'. 

      There are events that happen, and then everything changes.  Birth, Marriage and death are all certificated, and are therefore clearly significant.  The day before a baby is born s/he lies constricted, like a bat, inverted in dark warm water.  Sounds are muffled in a watery world.  The parents can visit their local cinema.  They go out for a pizza. They have time for each other. The next day the baby is born, and this carefree lifestyle is over for a long time.  

We know that despite one day following another (I'm thinking of the film 'Groundhog Day'), this world is waiting in suspended animation for the next big thing.  The people of Israel waited hundreds of year for the coming of their messiah.  Their picture of what was to happen had been eroded over time.  We read that the people were fascinated to hear from Jesus himself about what King David meant in Psalm 110 about the nature of the messiah (see Mark 12).

 Let us tread lightly on this earth, because it is not secure, and Jesus is coming back.