Ready for Takeoff?

Through the years, how many times have you heard these words?  Departure time? Arrival time? Destination? Do I need to change planes? How long is the flight? Who will get me there? Who will pick me up? What will I do when I get there? Do I have everything I need? Clothes? Money? Passport? Does my luggage cost extra? Economy or premium economy or business class or first class? Which airline?

Whew!! So many durn questions to be asked and answered when we plan to travel by airplane.  The list changes a little when we go by foot, train, or car. But you get the point, huh?

There is a trip we will be taking soon that requires no planning at all.  Whether we are ready or not, we will depart this planet and travel to our heavenly home. When will it happen you may ask? Well, that is a good question, but there is only one who knows the answer.

I Thessalonians 4:16-18 ESV ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 Corinthians 15:51-58 ESV ⁵¹ Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

And when you say, might this happen? Well, the apostles had the very same question for Jesus in Acts 1.

Acts 1:6-8 ESV ⁶ So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”

So, when will he come? No one knows except God. But I can tell you this, I am ready for takeoff, are you?