Triumphantly the Church Will Rise

I started thinking this week about life events – those memorable occasions that are anticipated, prepared for, planned in advance. Weddings, graduations, the Olympics, the birth of a baby, Come Celebrate Christmas, a 1st birthday (or maybe a 100th), a golden anniversary.

On December 28, 1996 I stood amidst twinkling Christmas lights, bouquets of flowers, and a church full of devoted friends and family, and became Mrs. Erik Waage. It was a magical, memorable day and as we left the reception, snow began to softly fall outside. My wedding was a glorious event that involved months of careful planning and years of faithful praying. BUT, if you ask anyone who was there on that beautiful day, they will tell you that the days preceding were not as magical! To begin with, our wedding took place in Oregon, 1000 miles away from where I was living and working. Planning a wedding long-distance brought its challenges, but it was worth it! Then, we chose a date following Christmas, right in the middle of my first year of teaching. Juggling a new career AND long-distance wedding planning was certainly stressful, but it was worth it! Two nights before the big day, an ice storm hit the Portland area. Power was out all over the city, streets were closed, flights were delayed or canceled. Our wedding party and many, many faithful friends and relatives made it (some, just barely – ask Rebecca sometime about a spinning car on I-5) but others, including my grandmother, could not. I had to make last-minute changes in my carefully laid-out plans and the frustration and disappointment caused physical and emotional stress that was almost too much to bear at times.

But it was all worth it. 

All of the frustrations, disappointments, and stress didn’t matter one iota when I walked down that aisle. It was beautiful, joyous, fun-filled day that I will treasure in my memory forever.

Planning, preparation – we put so much time, so much emotion, so much of ourselves into the anticipation of these big events in our lives. We’re willing to endure the stress because we know that, in the end, we will be able to say it was all worth it.

Do we eagerly anticipate Christ’s return in the same way? 

While we live here on earth, we will experience joy and sorrow, delight and pain. As believers, we know that trials WILL come our way. Bitter disappointment, frustration and failure, and rollercoasters of emotions are all part of the event-planning, the anticipation of Christ’s coming - the greatest event the world will ever know.

Matthew 24:29-31 

Immediately after the distress of those days

the sun will be darkened,

and the moon will not give its light;

the stars will fall from the sky,

and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. 

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 

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 one another with these words. 

Triumphantly, God’s church will rise to meet Him in the air, leaving behind every burden of this world.

It will ALL be worth it.

Click here to read the lyrics and listen to a solo arrangement of this song.