"Get Back Here, Jesus!"

“Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” (Rev. 22: 20)

Recently, my great granddaughter, Ava, was riding in the car with her grandmother, my daughter, Leah. The sky that day was resplendent with fluffy, white clouds, and Leah remarked to Ava, “See all the beautiful clouds, Ava? Jesus lives up there.” (Of course, you and I know He lives way above the clouds, but the concept of the three heavens is not so easily grasped by a 2 year old J. “He lived here for awhile, then He went back home to Heaven,” my daughter said. Ava thought about this for a minute, then leaned toward the window, looked up, and called, “Get back here, Jesus!” Leah remarked to me that perhaps this was the 2-year-old version of “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

While other people are setting dates and arguing over the order of events, pitting pre, post and a- millinialists against one another, this little girl got down to what is top priority in the doctrine of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ: ANTICIPATION. I’m not sure what all the ramifications of the verse are, but I do know Hebrews 9:28 says, “…unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time…” And in Revelation, after John had been shown all that would need to transpire before His return, he still could not keep from crying, “Come back, Jesus…now!

The fact that most of us never really long for Heaven or the Second Coming until we are older is proof that to most of us, this world and the people we love that are in it, are both more real to us than our eternal home and Jesus Christ. If you’re honest, you’ll have to admit that’s about the size of it. It is only when we grasp the insecurity of wealth, the impermanency of possessions, and the inadequacy of human love that we truly long to be in the presence of Someone who holds all things in the palm of His hand, who gives without taking back, and who loves us with an everlasting love. I don’t know about you, but I’m only now, in the twilight of my walk with God, beginning to get a glimmer of this great truth.

Jesus said that conversion requires childlike belief (Matt. 18:3), and perhaps the most satisfying and effective Christian life will display the same kind of faith. We may sing or repeat the words of John, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus”; but here’s the test: can we say with the same sincerity and eagerness of a child, “Get back here, Jesus”?