All Preparations Should be Made
There are no water bottles on the shelves of my local grocery store today, my neighbors here are preparing for the impact of a hurricane. The news stations are alerting citizens to get ready for the storm. “Do not be unprepared,” “Make sure you are ready,” “Be watchful and prepared for what is inevitable.” And, my neighbors are listening, they are hearing, and they are actively seeking the security that comes when preparations have been made.
You see, it is not that people do not know to listen to warnings; it is not that we do not understand that we must actively seek safety and ensure we do everything we can to be prepared for upcoming events that impact us.
As I watched the measured resolve of the shoppers in the grocery store, I began to think about the determined pursuit for a bottle of water by those who do not seem interested at all in obtaining the “living water” that our Lord has offered us to prepare for an everlasting life. We read of this wonderful conversation that Jesus has with a woman in Samaria in John 4:13-15: “Jesus answered and said to her, ’Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’”
After this conversation, our Lord will spend three years giving many warnings and instructions for essential preparations that must be made by all who seek eternal life. Why do more not heed the warnings of Jesus? It is not vague language that addresses the lack of preparation for eternal life versus eternal punishment: “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt 25:46).
Perhaps the problem is that everlasting life is not tangible, you cannot track it on radar, it does not demand immediate attention, nor does it threaten to impact our pleasure or day to day activity and interests. Therefore, it is easy to grow weary, to be distracted, and to fall asleep while waiting for this seemingly irrelevant and invisible long-time-from-now place. You remember the young maidens just earlier in Matthew 25, who were to accompany the bridegroom to the wedding feast? They were to be prepared and watching, they were to be excited for the privilege to meet this bridegroom and to attend the feast of celebration! Unfortunately, half of these young women were not prepared - they were unsure of whether the bridegroom would come and had determined that it was not worth the additional effort of preparation for something that did not seem to have an apparent impact on their present interests and lives.
Of course, everyone understands that when a hurricane arrives, the consequences differ for those who have heeded the warnings and been diligent to prepare themselves to meet the storm than for those who have not heeded the warnings. It is simple really. And so, my neighbors rush to the store, and they ensure they have all that is needed to avoid the punishments such a storm can bring. They protect their families; they teach the children what is necessary to avoid the negative impacts of the storm. They secure their homes and store up what is needed, and then they watch, and they wait, and they track, and they seek more information to be more and more ready for the time to come.
Preparation for eternal life is a daily endeavor. My friends and neighbors returned home from the store feeling confident that they had made the proper preparations for when the hurricane arrives. They are secure and confident that all that has been done will be enough to save them from the wrath of the winds and rains. My mind immediately demands me to consider my preparations for the greater impending day. The day that the heavens open and the righteous judge appears. I consider my daily desire to prepare, to partake of the living water that is offered that I may enter everlasting life when the day comes. I must properly evaluate my desire to learn more, to watch with faith, understanding that the day is near, to track my progress and to yearn for the day because I am certain all preparations have been made and there is plenty of oil in my lamp when the bridegroom arrives.
And Jesus will come. In John 5:24-29 he tells us, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”
So, what will happen to us when the day comes? It will depend on the preparations we have made by living our lives as those who hear His word and believe in Him.