People often say that we’re in the end times. They say that our world is hopeless (which it is) and that Jesus must surely be coming back soon. I truly hope that He does, because this world is very dark and very broken, and we need His deliverance.
At the same time, I can’t help but wondering if people throughout history have felt the same way. I think about the Holocaust and all the evil that came from it. Surely the world was just as dark during those days as it is now. People must have felt as though the darkness was overwhelming, like they would never overcome the great evil that seemed to prevail.
I think about so many natural disasters that have happened throughout the centuries. Devastating events that left people feeling hopeless and afraid. Worldwide famines and plagues. Countless wars in which so many have perished. I can’t help thinking that people during each of those dark times were looking for Jesus to return.
Perhaps sometimes we wonder why He is taking so long to deliver us from this world. We wonder when He will return, sometimes even obsessing over the details and allowing arguments to unfold because of different theories. But the truth is that none of us know when He will come back — none except for the Father above. God’s timing is beyond our understanding. Who are we to question when He chooses to fulfill His word?
I don’t know when Jesus will return for His people, but I do know this: A thousand years is like a day to Him, and He is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. (2 Peter 3:8-9) His ways are higher than ours, and His timing is not for us to understand. All we can do is live as He has called us to, right here, in this moment in time. We can speak the truth in love and pray for His will to be done. We can glorify our Father as we live our lives for Him, no matter what is going on in the world. We can, like Esther, do what He has called us to in such a time as this.
Because none of us knows when He will return, but we do know that He will return. And when He does, let us be ready. Let us be a people who was not conformed to the patterns of this world. Let us be His good and faithful servants, without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, shining like a light on a hill. Let us pray without ceasing, always looking forward to the day the trumpet sounds. What a glorious day that will be.