So, this September, Grace Church is 10 years old. To me, it paradoxically feels like it was only 5 minutes ago that we were praying and planning it into being, and at the same time, I can barely recall the time before it existed. I do have a very visual and energetic measuring rod though; my son was just a year old when it began and now he’s about to start secondary school – and those are years that feel as though they have whizzed by!
Psalm 90 verse 4 points out that this condition is magnified for God:
A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
By that calculation Grace Church is just over 14 minutes old; our lives on earth are a mere blink of the eye to God. As a child, that stretch of time between breaking up from school and Christmas day was about a billion years for us and the equivalent of Usain Bolt’s 100 metres to the Almighty.
More than 2 thousand years ago Jesus told us that He would be coming back with power and glory, to judge the living and the dead, and rule over a new and perfect creation.
We’re still waiting.
At what point do we realise we’ve been stood up; go home, make a cup of tea and watch a box set on Netflix?
The Bible tells us that God isn’t being tardy:
2 Peter 3:9-10 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
I am torn between praying for Jesus to come back soon, because I really want to see Him, and praying for Him to delay His return so I can tell a few more people about Him.
One thing we can be sure about – He will come back when the time is right; He will return and we had better be ready.
If He comes back in September He’ll find us celebrating our 10 year anniversary. Why don’t you join us?
When we’ve been here 10,000 years bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing his praise than when we first began.
John Newton – ‘Amazing Grace.’