One Year Closer
People like to look back at the year just ending and ask questions: Where did the time go? Did I get done what I had hoped? Why can’t we get rid of the Infernal Robbery Service (IRS) so I wouldn’t have had to do all that record keeping?
But while a lot of that can’t be avoided, it’s always best to look forward. Things have been pretty bad in the world, and things political seem much more heated now than they have been in a while. But one thing Christians have is hope. Those of us who believe God when he says this corrupt world of suffering will not go on forever, who eagerly await Jesus’ second return (and typically have that on our minds as we just celebrated his first), can look at 2008 as “one year closer”. Every year, every day, is a step closer to The End: the end of pain, the end of grief, the end of struggle and disappointment and injustice.
Some criticize us for wanting final judgment to come, as if we are selfish and care nothing for the lost. But what kind of “bride” does not wish to see her “groom” because it would hurt the feelings of her “single” friends? And what kind of Christian does not wish to see their Savior because those who have rejected him will have run out of time?
Some of those lost people might just snap out of their denial when confronted with the Apocalypse, who would otherwise have died in their sins. So God is actually doing a favor for those people, one that was never offered to the lost of previous generations. But which is better? Should we be mad at God for not doing something drastic in the past for each lost person, or because he will eventually lock the door? It seems to me that many people just want another excuse to blame God no matter what he does.
The fact is, God did do something drastic: Jesus became one of us, to die for us, and to rise again so we could also have the hope of eternal life in heaven. But many think that just wasn’t enough. That God shows anyone mercy at all, that he gives us time, is a testimony to his love. So we cannot fault God (as if we had the right anyway) for not bringing an apocalypse to all the lost of the past, and we cannot fault him for the one that will soon come.
So I say, Come, Lord Jesus! May this be The Year.