If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  I Cor 15:19 (KJV)

Fellow Doves XoX;

There are many layers of truth and profound teaching in this, as in all verses of inspired writ.  Like a precious gem it can be viewed from many angles and depths and is uniquely perceived from each.  My heart was led to this verse as I wrestle with a deep anxiety over the fervor arising around the impending arrival of our Lord in 2013, in December, in the sky, in a you tube video, in the dust of ISON, in a moment, in the twinkling or in a future yet unknown.

Recently we’ve been hearing the heart cry of fellow doves around the issue of the isolation of the Watch, the call of the Watchmen, the cold loneliness of our posts at the wall before dawn and the ridicule oft tossed up at us from the citizens, below.  These are all real issues yet it is that deep, inner hurt which I believe resonates strongest in us all.  With a small insight into the abandonment acknowledged by Christ on the Cross, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” we each wonder where our Daddy is?  Where is our Big Brother we thought would have already fetched us for the Father’s house?

I am ashamed of my anxiety in the bright light of my fellow Doves telling of 25 and 60 years of eager watching and connecting an ever growing number of dots.  In my spirit I pine away at the window for my lover who seems to be taking forever in wrapping up His other affairs and coming for His bride.  The accuser of the brethren prances around droning on and on about “where is the promise of His coming?”  Enough already; please don’t let me wake to another morning with the Bridesmaids asleep in the foyer and my head resting on a tear-soaked pillow while the neighbors laugh and mock the love-struck bride-to-be.

So I try to ready myself for another set of unfulfilled hopes of His coming and gird the underpinnings of my faith from the weight of further onslaught of worldliness and personal shortcomings and continued slog through the mire.  I tell my kids, in their teens and all still listening, that things are crazy and getting more so, and we laugh about Y2K, the Mayans, Comet Elinen, and at the contradiction so apparent between a world gone mad and an eschatology always in the wings but rarely on the stage.  Ok, Isaiah 19 and Egypt, we get that, wow.  Damascus avoided in the media now but like the villain’s sidekick still lingers in every scene; and yet, and yet. 

Paul tells us that if there is no transcendent Truth in Christ, if He is, in fact, not the Messiah, then we, of all men, are to be the most pitied.  So, here I sit, looking forward to His coming, with the World upstaging Him in every scene.  I wonder if the final shout isn’t the loudest one as it is the combined voices of all His Doves as WE yell back, YES! With the release of the pent up frustration of a bride vindicated as her Bridegroom finally arrives at her door and the neighbors are put to shame for their scoffing and even she is a bit embarrassed at her dismay in her waiting.

 

Jimbo