There's a particular event.that I anxiously wait for every summer. Capistrano has its swallows, and Hinckley has its buzzards; I have Dave. Granted, it's not a strange, irresistible instinctive force that compels my son to return from his six weeks in Colorado, but it's an occurrence that I look forward to with great expectation every year. Like the swallows and the buzzards, I have a pretty good notion when he's going to be arriving, in fact that turns out to be a very handy thing to know since I need to be there to pick him up from the airport. (And they all three are flying! Hmm...)

Even though I know a million little things could go wrong and he not return, I have absolute confidence that he will be all right and pretty much on time. First off, I have good communication with the airline and Dave himself I can call and see if the plane has left as expected (and with some of these fancy web sites, I can even track the plane via my computer on a map of the USA in real time!) or if it's been delayed ' ' Also, I get reassuring calls from Dave, who lets me know he's here or there or wherever.

I'm very excited that he's coming, and at work I am often caught daydreaming about what we'll be doing when he gets back. For no apparent reason, I grin and after a while my closer co-worker friends no longer ask about what I'm thinking. It's evident that Dave means a lot to me, and while I may exchange some loud words with him now and then (he IS a teenager, after all!) the potential he has for his future, the pride I have in him, the realization of his abilities leaves me thinking that at least as far as he is concerned I can feel confident.

Now, I am also excited that Jesus is coming back. I am looking forward to that, too. I know in the I' century the Christians were excited about it as well, so much that they needed to be reassured that those who had died in the meantime were not going to "miss out." I know, also, that NOTHING will go wrong, and that-when the time comes, the time that I cannot possibly know because only God knows when, it will all go perfectly. I have absolute confidence in God. And like the airline, I have good communication.

Prayer is a wonderful thing. I have no doubt that if there were Telephones at the time of Christ that Paul or Peter would have used them to illustrate our talking to God Oust as we run races and win prizes). Admittedly, it would be kind of funny to hear them say something technology-centric, like "AIM God", that we would hear -decades later and scratch our heads over. (AIM by the way is AOL Instant Messenger" the latest way to communicate. My wife learned to use it this summer just so she could chat with Dave while he was away. I'm old-fashioned and still prefer to use the "blower,. )

My point is that we can get reassurance from God from reading his word, which is just one way He communicates to us. Sometimes I do daydream about heaven, and what I will be doing when Jesus returns. Do I find myself grinning about it, for no apparent reason? Not often, and that's too bad. You might say this is different, that Dave is personal but Jesus isn't. Why not? He's my personal savior and redeemer. Hopefully from the things I say and do it's evident that Jesus means a lot to me. While I may exchange loud words with him (I am the loud one, he is always gentle) hopefully the fact that I turn to him in good times and bad, that I am not ashamed to proclaim my faith to others, that I use whatever he has given me to further his word has given him some confidence in me.

When Jesus returns, I don't want to be the one "coming back" when it's too late anyway. I want to already "be there", looking for Him!

Randy