Sunday Devotional

Max is a great comfort to me. As the wife of a shift-worker, I like having him around on the nights when my husband is gone. His sharp little ears are attentive to every sound, and I know I can rest assured with him standing watch. He warns me whenever a car pulls into the drive. His angry bark alerts us whenever a stranger approaches the door. He’s even started letting us know when the cows have escaped the pasture and are invading our yard.

His vigilance impressed me one day, when his low growl woke me from a sound sleep. I sat up in bed, listening. Nothing, and yet, Max persisted, so I rose to look. Outside, a full moon illuminated the landscape. Our shed stood out in stark relief against the night sky, and beyond it, deep in the woods, flames shot high into the air. I ran out onto the porch, clad only in my robe and slippers. Music and voices drifted to us from the bayou. Now and then, a gunshot pierced the darkness. I hurried inside and dialed the local sheriff’s office. Later, I learned a large group of people had been having a party by the water. One of them brought gun shells, and they took turns throwing them into the fire.

Why, I wondered, had God woken me from a deep slumber to witness such an event? And then I caught sight of Max seated at my heels. He stared up at me, eyes earnest, questioning. Watchful.

Do I watch with the same fervor as Max showed for the coming of the Lord as He commanded? Am I as ready, even in the dead of night, as Max was on this night?

I am learning to be.

Matthew 24:36-44 (New King James Version)

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven,[a] but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour[b] your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.