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Verse:Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. —Titus 2:13, NKJV
From New Testament times onward, Jesus’ followers have had this hope of His return and have waited for it. The blessed hope of Jesus’ second coming was a topic our church pioneers constantly spoke of as they traveled around the country preaching and teaching. This hope burned within their hearts. On October 22, 1844, some local Advent believers gathered on Ascension Rock on the William Miller farm in upstate New York, United States of America, watching the skies, waiting, and hoping. They were bitterly disappointed when Jesus did not return that day. Yet a faithful few still believed. In the late 1800s, traveling evangelists began pitching tents and preaching that Jesus was coming soon. My great-great-grandparents, after attending one of these tent meetings, became believers and joined those looking for His return.
All their lives, they looked for Jesus to come and fell asleep in “the blessed hope.” My great-grandparents, then my grandparents, and then my parents watched for Jesus to come in their lifetimes, but finally, they, too, fell asleep.
During my four years in academy, the principal often told us time was short, and Jesus would likely return to Earth before we graduated. Over fifty years have passed since then. One hundred and fifty years after the disappointment of 1844, I stood with my husband and children on Ascension Rock, gazed up at the heavens, and tried to imagine how those early believers must have felt. I remember wishing that Jesus would come that day.
However, 2 Peter 3:8 says that the Lord’s time is not our time. With Him, one day is as a thousand years. While He was on Earth, Jesus told several parables about delays—a bridegroom who delayed his coming, and a master who delayed his return. So we continue waiting and watching, even though the Lord seems to delay His coming.
He is “not willing that any should perish but that all” should accept His gift of salvation (verse 9, NKJV). Let us not become absorbed in the things of this world, for everything in this world will soon pass away. I pray that our burning desire will be to share Jesus and the hope of His coming.
Beth Davis Nelson