What to Expect When You’re Expecting

And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.  Revelation 22:7

Immediately after learning that my wife was pregnant with our first child, we went to the bookstore and purchased the popular book, What to Expect When You’re Expecting.  Each week throughout the pregnancy, my wife would read what things she should be watching for and expecting.  We were the epitome of first-time parents who looked forward with great anticipation to what and who we were expecting.

Sadly, few are actually waiting in expectation for our Lord Jesus Christ to return.   Our Lord’s second Advent is largely either ignored or feared.  The preaching of Christ’s return as a means of inciting fear by millennialist preachers has led to a lack of faithful teaching about Christ’s return in glory, even among Lutherans.  However, we pray that our people would be watching in expectation for our Lord’s return and that they would know what to expect when Christ comes again.

For Christians thought, Christ’s return is a source of comfort, hope and joy.  It is a source of comfort to know that when the Lord comes again that we will indeed be reunited with those who have gone before us in the faith.  The final day also fills the Christian with hope for deliverance from this veil of tears and ushers us into the new heavens and the new earth when the old order of things will pass away and God will make all things new.  In a world where children are abused by parents and children gun down fellow students in school, where the neglect of the weakest among us is seen among the infants, children and the aged and where the unborn are slain in the name of choice, we are filled with hope as we look forward to the day when our bitter conflicts cease.  Christ’s second coming also fills the Christian with joy as we look forward to seeing our Redeemer with our own eyes and rejoicing with all the saints and all the company of heaven.  May you eagerly expect our Lord’s return and may it fill you with comfort, hope and joy as you look forward to being at home with the Lord.

Prayer - Lord God, heavenly Father, make us watchful and heedful in awaiting the coming of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that when He shall stand at the door and knock, He may find us not sleeping in carelessness and sin, but awake and rejoicing in His appearance; through the same, Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.

Fraternally in Christ,

President Lee Hagan