"I will come back"

[Jesus said], "When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know where I am going and how to get there."

His promise to return

As a child, George Tulloch was fascinated by stories of the Titanic.In 1996 he put together a team of the best scientists and sailors and set out to the exact spot where the Titanic sank in 1912. He and his crew were able to recover numerous artifacts from the shipeyeglasses, jewelry, dishware, some coins and the like. But the most exciting thing they found was a large piece of the hull resting several hundred yards away.

The team did it's best to raise the twenty-ton piece of iron, but to no avail. At one point the team almost had it.but a storm blew in and.the Atlantic reclaimed its treasure. Then Tulloch did something surprising before they were forced to retreat. He descended into the deep once more in a small submarine, and using a robotic arm, he attached a small handmade placard onto the section. It said, "I will come back. George Tulloch."

For a lot of the same reasons, Jesus left us a similar message. "I am going to prepare a place for you..When everything is ready, I will come and get you" (John 14:2-3). Some may wonder why he cared in the first place. Why would he even want to reclaim us? What good are we to him? In many ways we're just as worthless and cumbersome and unyielding as that lazy piece of iron in the Atlantic.

But Jesus doesn't see us that way. He's dreamed of this moment since the beginning of creation, and now that the time is near he can't help but leave this mark on our hearts. "I'm leaving now. But don't worry, I'll be back.

Adapted from Embracing Eternity by Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins and Frank M. Martin, Tyndale House Publishers (2004), entry for January 1.

Digging Deeper: This week (Tuesday) is the release of the The Rapture , the last of three prequel stories to the Left Behind series.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House