The story is told of the time when a fishing boat was expected to return to a little village. The wife of one of the fishermen could be seen standing at the end of the dock, eagerly watching for the tiny speck which would grow into the little vessel that carried her beloved husband. And after a time, she was rewarded, for off in the distance a tiny speck appeared and grew and grew until she was able to see the object of her attention, seated in the boat with his fellow fisherman.
After the boat had docked and the couple had left, the other fisherman, who had been eagerly looking around, hoping to see his wife, picked up his gear and began to walk toward his cottage. But his wife was nowhere to be seen.
He came to the gate of his cottage, but still his wife was not to be seen. He went to the door, but no wife opened it. He entered and went into the kitchen where his wife was working. Seeing him she said, “Hello! I’ve been waiting for you, dear!”
“But,” said her husband, “you weren’t at the dock watching for me, like Mary was.”
“Well,” she replied, “I’ve had so much to do. I was just too busy.”
So often we have heard of the coming of the Lord as the “proper hope of the church.” We know this truth in our minds, but perhaps the thought of His coming does not have its proper effect on the affections of our heart. Thus the way we live and walk in this present world is not so much guided by His promised coming.
The Thessalonian believers were to comfort one another with the thought that the Lord Jesus would come to catch away the sleeping (those who had died) and the living believers. Almost the last words of Revelation are a promise from the blessed lips of our Saviour: “Surely I come quickly” (Rev. 22:2020He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20)). What effect does the truth of the promised return of my precious Saviour do to my heart and my life?
Will you and I be found, as the Lord Jesus taught the disciples in Luke, waiting and ready for when He returns? And while we wait for the blessed event, are we doing working, “redeeming the time,” until that blessed voice gives the shout calling His beloved bride home? But above all, do our “hearts burn within us” with the thought of His near return, causing us to eagerly watch for it, as a longed-for and expected event?
Oh! may our hearts be so filled with love for His blessed person that we can do nothing else but be found watching for Him! May we in the heartfelt breathings of earnest love say, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
W. Gill (adapted)