THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER
"Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. " (John 5:39)

VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2, JANUARY 14, 2007

SNOW, OH NO!

          Last week the possibility of snow existed.  Three days before the dreaded event was supposed to take place the meteorologists at the various television stations in town started to get real excited.  I recall the promo for one of the news programs where the anchor said, “SNOW is in the forecast.”    I am quite sure that throughout the tri-state area, people were going “Oh no, not SNOW!”

            For the next three days we got to watch the impending snow event make its way across this great country.   We saw computer models anticipating its inevitable arrival.  Story after story appeared about the various city and county service departments gearing up to hit the roads with the salt trucks.  The day before the “white death” was to come upon us, the bigger and wealthier counties were “pre-treating” the roads.  I saw a local tire dealer whose sign encouraged us all not to worry about the snow, come on in and buy some new tires and that would take care of it.  Without a doubt some folks made sure that they got to the supermarket to buy bread and milk.  All of this for a possible snow storm with a predicted accumulation of 1, that’s “one” inch.  By the way, the snow did not come.

            It never ceases to amaze me the amount of excitement the possibility of snow can generate.  Folks spring into action getting ready for its arrival, and yet it seems that in this part of the country, it rarely turns out to be as bad as predicted.  Nonetheless, the salt trucks are loaded, the snow shovels primed and in an easily accessible spot in the garage, and the refrigerators stocked with milk and bread.

            There is an event that has been predicted by One whose every other prediction has turned out to be absolutely accurate and true.  Jesus is coming back, and when He does it will be in judgment. 

            In John 5:28 – 29, the Lord said, “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 many make more preparation for the possibility of a one-inch snowfall than they do for the event that will bring this old world to an end.

            Peter tells us what that day will be like, and incredibly, by their actions, most people indicate that they are more concerned about the inconvenience of slippery roads on the way to work.  In 2 Peter 3:10-12, we find, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat: both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.  Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of person ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat.”  Peter asked a marvelous question in that passage.  Since all of these things are going to happen, what kind of people should we be?  People of holiness and godliness, which is just another way of saying “Prepared People.”

            I was disappointed when I woke up on the day of the predicted snowfall.  There was to be that inch on the ground when I got up, with a little more to follow during the course of the day.  I sprang from my bed with the excitement of a child on Christmas day, looked out my bedroom window and all I saw was the brown, wet grass of an unusually warm and rainy winter.  I was so disappointed.  All preparation had been to no avail.  But this I know for certain.  On the great day when the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, when we hear the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God – all preparation made in anticipation of that event will have been rewarded.  As Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18, “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words. 

Greg Litmer