A Thief in the Night!

Last night I didn't sleep so well. I was just dozing off when I heard some gunfire in the distance. The dogs of the neighborhood started howling to each other and I sat up in bed imagining the worst. I was peeking out of windows to see if our night guard was ok and still patroling the yard (he was). Joel told me he would stay up awhile so I could sleep...but I still couldn't sleep. Finally I think I fell asleep around 2:00am. At 4am I woke up to more gunshots and Joel was still awake so I decided that there was nothing I could do and fell asleep quickly before my mind got too busy scaring me to let me sleep again. As we understand it there is a police patrol that go around the streets of our neighborhood every night and they were the ones firing the guns at whatever bad guy they were chasing. I guess it is unusual for the bad guys to actually have guns (somebody could have mentioned that to me at midnight when I was wide awake in my bed...).

After our last break in Joel preached on Sunday about Christ returning like a thief in the night. That is how He is returning! Now, after having a thief at our house in the night, I know how unexpected it was. We were not waiting for him or prepared for his coming. We were, of course, prepared for his coming on the nights following his appearance. But I wonder...is the way I am now completely aware of the possiblity of a thief in the night supposed to be the way I am aware of the suddeness of Christ's return? Let me tell you, to actually be prepared for a thief takes a lot of time and diligence and attention being paid to things that before the thief actually comes, seems trivial. What things seems trivial to me now...but I will regret the lack of attention I have paid to them after Jesus returns? Movies, books, time spent with my children...teaching them their 3R's or teaching them about the most important things that last forever? Just something I have been thinking about.