God Grabbed our Attention

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
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. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Photo by Maggie Wickline-Jowers

On Monday afternoon, I joined the large group gathered on the commons in front of the college. A buzz of voices bounced about as we waited to see the much anticipated solar eclipse. In Ohio, we knew we'd only see about a 92% eclipse, nevertheless folks were pumped. Would the skies grow dimmer? Might the temperature drop? How would it look? As the clock approached two-thirty, several of us popped on our solar eclipse glasses and gazed up toward the giant star that lights our days and the satellite that orbits the earth. The moon passed over the sun. At 92% a sliver of sun remained visible.  The sky's appearance looked as if I was wearing Polaroid sunglasses and the temperature dropped a few degrees. After I finished checking out this rare phenomenon, I loaned my glasses to folks near-by. As I watched the crowd, I had to smile. For several minutes on a Monday afternoon, everything stopped. No matter who I stood beside, we shared the same purpose. People smiled and laughed, chatted and shared their experience. A little bit of peace covered us.

I loved that we all stopped what we were doing, put away our concerns, and tucked in our differences to gaze on the wonder God created. In all the chaos of this life, God grabbed our attention.

Since then I've thought about another time when everyone will stop what they're doing. A moment, expected yet unknown. A time when all eyes will look to the sky. We won't need NASA certified glasses to cover our eyes. Instead we'll need hearts that have accepted and believe the Lord Jesus Christ is Savior. There won't be a specific time designated by astronomers. Instead, he will come in the twinkling of an eye. Jesus will appear in the clouds to collect his followers, both those who have died and those still alive on earth. All eyes will look to Jesus on that day, the day he returns to gather his children and take them to heaven. I don't know about you, but I'm excited to see Jesus. I'm not sure when he'll come back, but I know he will. I have faith in the truth of the Bible and that God keeps his promises. When Jesus appears in the clouds, everyone will stop and look up.