One Christmas Eve I went to sleep to the sounds of Carols being sung on the television, only to be woken a couple of hours later by an approaching storm. Checking the time told me that Christmas Day had arrived fifteen minutes earlier.
I watched the distant flashes of lightening snatches of the song Silent Night kept going around in my head, particularly the phase “Christ the Savior is born” to the sounds of sheep bleating outside in the paddock.
I thought about that first Christmas night when Jesus arrived, clearly the night had to be a calm one which meant that when the shepherds saw and heard the angels tell them the good news they were left in no doubt about what they had witnessed. There could be no other explanation, it could not be explained away as a trick of a stormy night such as I was seeing outside.
My thoughts turned to the next arrival of Jesus, the one where He will return on the clouds. It would not surprise me if when that happens it does happen on a very stormy night.
What became clear to me was that on the first occasion Jesus slipped silently into our world. Only those directly involved, the shepherds, Mary and Joseph, Herod and the Wise Men, were left in no doubt about what was happening. Jesus had arrived but the rest of the world did not have a clue about what was going on.
Slowly, they found out that He was here to help us all understand His love for us and by grace provide the gift of salvation.
In contrast, the next time, the whole universe will know exactly what is happening. Jesus’ return will be seen by everyone and everything. There will be absolutely no doubt about what is going on and there will be no way of explaining it away, storm or no storm.
This time they will very quickly find out that He is here to find out what everyone has done with that gift of salvation.
“For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Romans 14:11-12
"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:10-11.
We have no idea when the second arrival of Jesus will be, but today is the day to make sure that you have accepted that gift of salvation because once Jesus returns there will be no time left to make a choice about if you want it or not.