Day 3, Tuesday, Dec 5
A few years ago I got a chalkboard that is set up for a countdown to Christmas. I got it in early December and faithfully (mostly) lowered the number of days ‘til Christmas until the day we left for the Christmas holiday. When I returned a few days after Christmas, it seemed kind of sad to just put the chalkboard away, like there was nothing left to look forward to now. Then I thought to myself, “Hey, Christmas is still coming. It’s just farther away now than it was a few days ago.” So, instead of putting my calendar away, I started the countdown again, only now it was almost 360 days to Christmas. People who come by my office are usually surprised by how far away Christmas seems (“Wow, it’s 240 days to Christmas?”) or else shocked by how close it is getting (“It’s really just 67 days to Christmas?!”).
I love Christmas and celebrating our Lord’s birth, so I’m excited about counting down the days until it gets here. But we should be equally excited or maybe more excited about counting down the days until His return. We don’t know the exact day, so we can’t put it on a calendar and count down the days that way, but we can keep it a focus of our lives, being ever mindful of His soon return and what we should be doing while we wait for it. Just like the countdown to Christmas helps to remind us that we need to get our baking, our shopping, and our gift wrapping completed in time, so the thought of Christ’s return should motivate us to make sure we are busy in our service for Him. We don’t know when that day will be, so let’s keep working every day to make sure we are ready when it comes.
Titus 2:13 “ . . . looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Ruth Grimm, Director of Publications
