Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
Matthew 24:30-31 NIV
Periodically, I run across a cartoon of a man holding a sign that says something like, “The world is ending soon.” This is intended to be funny and to poke fun at doomsayers. But there is truth in that message. There is coming a day when the world as we know it will come to an end. I do not have any special insight into when it will occur. Nor do I know many of the details of that event.
But what I can know is that it is coming. It will be a day of mourning for the people of the earth. A time of judgment. But it will be a day of rejoicing for Jesus’ elect, those who have confessed him as Lord and followed as his disciples. Whether we are still living or have previously died, we will be gathered from around the world and brought into his new creation.
And that is the great hope we have as believers. That this world, and our life here, is not all there is. Something much better has been prepared for us (John 14:2-3). Something beyond our imaginations (1 Cor. 2:9). So, as we await that day when Jesus comes on the clouds of heaven, we can look forward to it with anticipation. Living lives of devotion to our Lord and faithfully following wherever he leads.
