A week ago today, I met my new baby niece, Mary Evelyn Brown.
Because she lives across the country, it had been almost 3 weeks from the day she was born to the day I met her.
My excitement to hold this little one for the first time, whom God had so fearfully and wonderfully made, was uncontainable as I began counting down the days to see her.
16. 15. 14. 13…
The day I met her my joy was made complete.
Big blue eyes, faint yet expressive eyebrows, small button nose
and her daddy’s forehead.
So precious. So beautiful. So small.
As I held little Mary, who could offer me nothing, who couldn’t greet me or say my name, who had no idea that for the past 3 weeks I’d been counting down the days to meet her, I began thinking….
I wonder if there’s countdowns in heaven.
Do you remember the day you received Christ?
A day of homecoming, of restoration, of peace.
Do you ever wonder if heaven had been counting down the days to the exact moment you would believe in Jesus ever since you’d been alive- perhaps even before?
Ephesians 1:3-6 says this-
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
Before the foundations of the world, he knew us- and chose us.
Before the foundations of the world, there may have been a countdown for your soul.
Even though at the time of our salvation, we were dead in our trespasses in sins.
Even though, like little Mary, we couldn’t offer Jesus anything,
He was waiting to meet us, and save us, and love us.
I think back to some of the most moving Jesus encounters of the bible-
the paralytic at Bethesda, the man who’d been blind from birth, the ten lepers, the woman at the well….
I wonder if Jesus was counting down the days to when he’d meet these people- and change their lives.
I wonder if he woke up on these days with a grin on his face he couldn’t wipe off- much like the grin I wore as I boarded the flight to meet Mary.
“What’s got you smiling today, Jesus?”
one of his disciples would ask over breakfast.
“Oh nothing.” He’d reply, knee bouncing with excitement as he quickly swallowed his food, so ready to get on with the event that would later take place that day.
Finally, he’d breathe, it’s here at last.
The day my beloved will know they’re mine.
We are finite beings, with such limited knowledge and at times such caged in thinking. We are completely unaware, that love is on the move, even now- in our dark and twisted world. We forget that God is the God of salvation, who “desires all men to be saved.” (1 Timothy 2:4)
We can’t hear the countdowns of heaven, so we forget that they are happening.
Perhaps you are familiar with C.S. Lewis’ allegorical series- the chronicles of Narnia. In it, Aslan, the good, but not tame lion represents Christ-and the four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are called to his world to help him carry out his mission of conquering evil in Narnia.
Before the children meet Aslan, they hear about him from a talking Beaver who tells them: “Aslan is on the move- perhaps already landed.”
Then Lewis continues with this:
“And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it has some enormous meaning- either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.“
When kind of feeling do you get, when you hear that Christ is on the move? Excitement, horror, fear, joy?
Friend, the days are bleak.
The time is short.
And the darker it gets, the closer we reach the greatest countdown of all- one only the Father knows.
The countdown of Jesus’ return.
He is coming. He’s on the move.
And so many are unaware. So many don’t know the truth.
Yet.
Be encouraged. Not all hope is lost.
As long as we’re here, and we’re breathing, he is working.
And as I counted down the days to meet my baby niece, Christ is counting down the days until he calls his bride home to heaven.
Just like Aslan, he is on a mission.
And just like the Pevensie’s, he has called us to join him.
Mary Evelyn didn’t know that I was coming.
Neither do the lost ones who have yet to be found.
But Jesus is working. He’s on the move.
He’s counting down the days until all who’ll repent have drawn near.
Let’s join him.
“In the little quiet town, the Hope of the world was found. Under the night sky, He died and rose again. The Sacrifice that conquered sin, and now we are his feet, his hands. And anyone can run, into the arms of God. Love is on it’s way and it will find you.”
-Leeland
