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As a follower of Jesus, I would say we all look forward to the day when the Lord comes back to get us. We call this event the “Rapture.” Even though this word is not used in the Bible, we see the idea of it throughout the New Testament. I Corinthians 15:50-52, “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised   imperishable, and we will be changed.” We see a better picture of this in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God,  and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we  shall always be with the Lord.”

The return of Jesus has burned in the hearts of every Christian who has ever existed. John reassures us of our Lord’s return in Revelation 1:7-8, “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen. “I am the Alpha   and the Omega," says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” This should bring great excitement to us, because the truth is that this event could happen at any moment. I long for that day. I desire to be rid of all the hostility and anger that permeates around us. I just want to go home.

But we are still here for a great purpose, and that is to try and bring as many people as we can with us. We do this by loving people, but with that love, we must share the Good News of Jesus Christ. I don’t know when the Lord is going to come and get us; no one does, but we do know this: He is closer today than He was yesterday. My prayer is that everyone who listens to or reads this rap will know for sure they are ready. We must be busy about the Father’s business, but I do think it’s okay every once in a while to gaze up into the sky and look to see if the clouds are parting.