“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because our redemption draws near.” Luke 21:28

Look Up

The other day I was cleaning off a large bookshelf. Tall, dusty stacks of books accumulated on the floor beside me when a very small, thin volume fell out from between two other books. It was just a magazine, really, but it brought back vivid memories of my early Christian days in the 1970’s.

The little magazine was called Last Days Newsletter, first published in 1978 and then every so often by singer/songwriter/author Keith Green. Keith died young in an airplane crash in 1982, and the Christian world mourned his passing. We played his songs in his memory for weeks (on 8-track tapes and cassettes, most of which now have a permanent home in landfills). The magazine always included artists’ renderings of scenes such as a day when we who loved the Lord would be safely on a dock surrounded by a sea of drowning people who were begging for our help, but it would be too late. It scared me into right living.

Keith’s message was that Christ is coming back. My pastor preached that same message: “Look up! Lift up your heads! He’s coming again!” Wearing our tie-dyed shirts, skirts and headbands, our macrame’ belts and vests, with puka shell necklaces around our necks, we’d sing “Love, love, love, love, Christians, this is your call”, with our arms around each other’s shoulders, swaying. Smiley faces and colorful flowers adorned our cars and guitars. “It only takes a spark to get a fire going,” we sang around the campfires. “Maranatha” (come quickly), we would say as we parted each other’s company.

We really did look up, too. We stood and stared into the clouds. I loved to imagine that day. The trumpet. The jaw-dropping awe. The joy of being taken away into the clouds with my Savior. The scoffers left behind. No one knew the day or hour (Matthew 24:36), not even the angels. Only God knew.

We were continually reminded to look up, to lift up our heads, to be watchful and ready (Matthew 24:44). Nobody would expect it. Everything around us would be happening just as usual. People would be eating, drinking and getting married with no thought for what was to come, just as in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-38). And then it would happen. We were so full of anticipation of the good to come, we were in love with life. Nothing could touch that inner, happy place. We were His! He had prepared a place for us, and He was coming to get us and take us there ANY SECOND NOW!

You know what? I never hear this any more. I never see people looking up for His return. We rarely remind each other that we need to be watchful and ready. Maybe it’s such common knowledge that we don’t bother to say it, but we lose the sense of imminence and urgency that Scripture exhorts us to live with. Let’s tell each other to watch for that glorious moment that will happen sometime between “now” and “then”, that twinkling of an eye, when Christ comes for us.

Trim the wicks! Get the oil! (Matthew 25:1-13). Light the lamps, and watch for the soon coming of our Groom. Maybe it’ll be today!

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)

Jesus, we look for Your imminent return. Help us live as if it will be today. Amen.