(1 John 3:3) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
I remember one day as a child when my great aunts from LA happened to stop by our house unannounced. Now we loved our aunties but coming by unexpected like that really sent my mother into a flurry. You see, my mother’s aunts were the fastidious type, who had everything but the white glove when it came to cleanliness and orderliness. My mom kept a spotless house, but you have to remember she had three boys who were always cluttering up the house. So when she saw them drive up in front of the house she sounded the alarm and in a manner of a few minutes we had the whole house cleaned up. I mean we grabbed up all the clothes and shoes off the floor and literally shoved them into the closets. We picked up all the loose papers on the tables and hurriedly stashed the dirty dishes on the kitchen counter under the sink. It is incredible to think of all we did in the time it took two old ladies from LA to park their big-boat of a car on the curb, grab their white sweaters and travel purses, waddle up the driveway, and work their way through the courtyard to get to the point where they were able to finally extend their perfectly manicured fingernails up to the doorbell. My mother summoned up her poise, patted down her loose hairs, threw her shoulders back, donned a catalog smile, and gingerly opened up the door and welcomed her aunties in. We all maintained a well-kept family secret under mom’s strictest orders! After the aunties left back for LA, we laughed and laughed as we opened closet after closet, allowing clothing items and miscellaneous family junk to tumble forward.
Now, that’s a nice story unless the person coming to your door is Jesus Christ Himself! You see, Jesus promised He would be coming soon (John 14:1-3). And having this hope, we can purify ourselves just as He is pure. At least He has told us He will be coming. He just didn’t say when. So we have every opportunity to get our "house" in order. If we say our Lord is delaying His coming, then there will be that tendency to get slack in our walk and to not keep in shape spiritually (Mat 24:48-51). But when He comes, He will appear suddenly, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15:52) and we won’t even have a fraction of a second to do some last minute arranging. We will either be ready or not. I’d rather be ready, how about you? Let’s keep that hope before us so that when He comes we will welcome Him and be ready for dwelling in the house of the Lord forever!
Louie