Have you ever had to get ready for an important occasion? (Await responses and have a conversation about what it means to be ready)
Jesus was talking to his friends about a time yet to come, it wasn’t the kind of time that you could put in your calendar, but it was a time to look forward to, a time to get ready for.
Even before Jesus time, the ancient prophets had talked about it; it was a time when there would be peace in the world, when we wouldn’t hear about war anymore. A time when nobody would be hungry again and sickness would not be heard of. A wonderful time when everyone would know God and all would be well.
Jesus told his followers to be ready for that time, that even though they didn’t know when it would come, he told them to be ready.
And do you know what, even though that time still has not come even two thousand years later, Jesus friends still get ready for it, not only because it is something to look forward to, but because by being ready they began to make the world around them a better place.
You see when Jesus told people to get ready he didn’t mean they should pack a suitcase, but that they should think about how they live. That they should be kind and generous, that they should think about others before themselves, and that they should remember the stories they had been told by Jesus, remember the things he had done, and the things he told them to do….
Don’t worry about getting thing’s he’d told his followers, trust me, and trust God.
Be ready to share, not only what you have, but your love for others as well.
And all through hundreds of years Jesus followers have been reminding one another to be ready, and in many, many ways they have made the world a better place.
So next time you are getting ready for an important date remember, there is another date coming, a date we can't put in our calendars, because it is God's special secret, but we can get ready for it anyway, just by thinking about how we live!
