Coming One
"Don't throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you need endurance, so that after you have done God's will, you may receive what was promised. For in yet a very little while, the Coming One will come and not delay." (Hebrews 10:35-37 CSB)
Ours is a God of invitation. But His invitations are open-ended and unforced. He leaves the choice of whether or not to respond to them—to respond to Him—up to us.
"I am the Door," Jesus says, but He does not force us to open it.
"I am the Way," Jesus says, but He does not force us to walk it.
"I am the Truth," Jesus says, but He does not force us to believe it.
"I am the Life," Jesus says, but He does not force us to live it.
So, too, with Jesus as the Coming One: out of who He is, He calls to us...then leaves the option of response up to us.
"Come," the Coming One says, and what He offers is both our right and our responsibility. He presents us with a gilt-edged invitation embossed with the seal of the Master of the house. By His grace and favor, we have the right to be on the guest list. But if we do not fulfill our responsibility and respond to His invitation—if we do not show up at the banquet and take our seat at the table next to all the other weary and burdened, the laboring and the laden—we will miss the feast.
"Come," the Coming One says. And then He waits.
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I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to tell me what you really think. Years ago, I explained to my then-two-year-old that my appointment with a counselor was "sort of like going to a doctor who will help me be a better mommy." Without blinking, she replied, "You'd better go every day." All of which is just to say I've spent some time in the school of brutal honesty!