For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. I Thessalonians 4:16-18 (NIV)
We live just across a bay from a large air force base. Once a year, they held large air shows which we enjoyed attending. It was fun to go in the different kinds of planes and learn how size and design corresponded with its mission. Seeing the planes in the air was also thrilling particularly the Blue Angels whose skill and daring leaves you breathless when they are done. When security tightened after 9-11, the air shows stopped for a time. During those early days when it seemed like a terrorist was behind every tree, being so close to a military base gave me some angst as did living in the shadow of a nuclear power plant. I wasn’t sure whether to feel safer or more like a target. Those anxious days are over, but every once in a while, we get a reminder of our neighbor’s power as the big bombers or other planes fly over our house. We hear the noise first, a steady rumble that increases in decibels as they draw closer. We rush outside hoping to get a glimpse of something new and exciting. If my youngest son is with me, he can identify the type quickly and easily. The most common aircraft are the bomber refuelers, the C-130s. The move fairly slow and we can see a lot of the details on the plane. Sometimes, they will practice maneuvers and we can see how they prepare to refuel a bomber. Once, one flew for over an hour out in the gulf. We finally figured out it must be dumping fuel due to a malfunction. Occasionally, we will see the fighter jets. They come in fast and loud and don’t give us much warning. They are here and then, they are gone. One night, we heard them coming and ran outside to see five streak across the sky in formation. A blink and we would have missed them they were so fast. Before we knew it they were long gone almost over the Atlantic, but we could still see their lights flashing in the distance. Today, we saw our first stealth bomber. It came over our car while we were headed home from church. We weren’t sure what we were seeing at first, so missed most of the details. It was so flat and sleek it looked just like a Frisbee tossed high in the air. About an hour later, it came back, right over our house. We were able to clearly see its underbelly as it glided easily above our heads. We followed it for as long as we could see it until it looked like a bird cutting through the sky. It was quite thrilling and the rest of the afternoon, we kept our eyes on the heavens, hoping it would come by once again. There is another reason to keep our heads up, watching the clouds. Someday, Jesus is coming again to take us home. Wouldn’t it be something if it were today?
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