The Dead in Christ Shall Rise...

The clock on the stove says 4:47 as I open the kitchen door of the old farmhouse and step out into the pre-dawn world. A cricket chirps loudly from under one of the porch boards. He stands out as the soloist, backed up by the muted choir of millions of his fellows, their songs joining into one lovely cacophonious chorus all around us, my cricket friend and I, gathering volume as it travels across the sod fields in the darkness beyond the neighbour's barn. I breathe deeply. The cedars partially lining one side of our yard share their characteristic perfume with the sweet musky smell of dew dampened earth. The sky is deep and dark with the edges of the trees outlined like black lace against an eerily soft charcoal-grey velvet. There are no stars this morning and the dark, humid air enfolds me and draws me further as I step carefully onto the porch steps and desend into the blackness. Tiny, tiny droplets, too tiny to be called "rain" freshen my face. There is a storm raging to the south, just like the one that often rages in my heart. But in this moment and in this place, there is stillness. In His presence, there is peace.

I love the promise of these moments shared with God alone. I think of the day ahead and wonder who I will meet today... Who will need his life as it flows through me and I hope that this is a day that will end with no disappointment in failures to minister his love to others, but only joy in his glory revealed.

Will I be yielded and ready when he needs me? Will I think of his mission, his message, his fame, his reputation, his glory, his words, his comfort, and not my own?

I look to the eastern sky and I wonder about his coming. Will it be today? Will I hear his shout and the shout of the archangel as that grey velvet peels back, sky splits with blinding light, and the Son of Man, the Lord of Glory descends? Oh, I wonder and glory at that thought!

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 NIV

I pray that this is the day. If not his physical coming, I pray that this is the day he comes into the life of everyone who touches mine. I pray this day I am able to turn my members over to him to use as he sees fit. I pray that everywhere I go today, that surrender will be my foremost thought and that the dead in Christ will rise...