Are you ready for the snow?

Yesterday evening we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things: breakfast cereal, milk, eggs, grape juice, bread, bagels, sugar (granulated and powdered) cake mix, chips and ice cream. We got more than we had too; we just stopped to get what the kids would need for their school parties the next day. However, as we expected school is closed today because of the winter storm; it’s a snow day. That explains why we got a few of the other things; with eight of us we could run out of bread and milk quickly.

The bad weather also explains why the store was so unusually busy; lots of people were there not just filling their carts, but overflowing them with enough to last for days for fear the weather would keep them at home for a while. With the roads snow covered and the snow still falling they wanted to be prepared for the worst.

"So stay awake and be prepared, because you do not know the day or hour of my return.
Matthew 25:13 (NLT)

With these words Jesus ends the first of three parables warning His disciples to be prepared for His second coming. Jesus will come suddenly and with less warning than a winter storm, or any other weather disaster for that matter. As Jesus said, “The Son of Man will come again just as lightning flashes from east to west” (Matthew 24:27 GW).

Of the ten virgins only five were ready when the bridegroom came. Only two of three servants were ready when their master returned. Yet in each case they had all been told to be ready, but unfortunately some were not and were therefore rejected by the one they had been expecting. This should cause us to do all we can to be ready for Christ’s coming so that we are not one who is left behind.

We have been warned to be ready for the Day of His coming. We won’t have time to say a prayer or repent of our sin when He comes. Now is the time to prepare; that Day will be too late.

At His coming He will separate the peoples of the earth like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep, those who were ready will be on His right, the goats who were unprepared to His left. Untold numbers will be divided that day. Those on the right will be accepted; those on the left will be sent away. Which side will you be on?