I grew up in a small house with lots of land. My grandparents lived next door and Grampa farmed, gardened, raised chickens and pigeons, and grew many fruit trees as well as grapes. All this land and all those trees made for great places to hide. When my cousins came over and it would just be growing dark, we’d have some fantastic games of hide and seek. “One-two-three-NOT IT!” The last person had to count to 50 while the rest of us scrambled to find the best hiding place. We went quickly because all too soon, we’d hear, “Ready or not! Here I come!”
I thought of that phrase this morning as I considered all that is happening in the world today. We are being asked to handle circumstances – e-Learning, homeschooling, social distancing, isolation, sacrifice – that scream “Ready or not! Here I come!” It isn’t nearly as thrilling as hearing it as a child. Perhaps you wish you could hide from it all.
Life is like that. It hits us when we think we cannot handle another thing in our lives. We think we cannot handle anything more. However, what we think and what God knows are vastly different. A sermon from years ago has stuck with me. The preacher talked about how we so often look at others with their struggles and say, “I don’t know how they do it. I couldn’t handle that.” And we are right to say that. If God has not asked us to handle it, then we cannot handle it. But the flip side is to remember that if God does ask us to handle it, He will provide the grace for us to handle it.
II Corinthians 12:9 says, But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
When the time comes, He will provide so that we are ready for whatever comes our way. He makes us ready. The struggle comes in trying to remember that!
“Ready or not! Here I come!” is also true of our future with Christ. We don’t know when He is coming, but He is coming. And whether we are ready for Him, or whether we have fiddled away our time on our own pleasures and desires, He is still coming. Let’s start now. Let’s get ready today. Because, it just might be today.
Mark 13:32-33 says, “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.
Perhaps today.
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