The sheets are changed on the bunkbeds. The booster seat is firmly attached to one of the kitchen chairs and bath toys are in the tub. The infant bouncy seat cover is washed and ready for action, and the pack and play is in place. Later today, the car seat will go in the car. All this can mean only one thing:

The grandkids are coming!

Really, there’s not much that makes me happier than knowing my grandkid room is going to be pressed into service. I spend a few days preparing for their arrival, pulling out toys that are age-appropriate (I have quite a stash in there), changing books around for the same reason, and this time, getting the finishing touches put on the vintage lithographed tin dollhouse I got at a charity auction. Lilli and I have been FaceTiming about that little beauty for a couple of weeks now, so there’s a lot of excitement where it’s concerned.

I make sure we have all the baby stuff we need on this end (to make traveling with a newborn and toddler a little easier on my daughter), get her room all ready, stock the bathroom with toiletries, and make a big grocery run for everyone’s favorites. It’s fun to prepare for them because I long to see them. I watch the calendar with great anticipation for the day they’re all coming, and play out the scene, in my head, of that first greeting, after not having seen them in a while. And, when it really happens, I’m never disappointed. Lilli always runs to me, jumps into my arms, and just looks at my face with an amazed smile, saying “Mimmie…Mimmie…” like she can hardly believe I’m really right there. I love it.

You know, there’s another return of a Loved One coming one day in the future. Christ is going to come back. When He rose from the dead, and later ascended to heaven, it was with the complete intention of returning for us. We don’t know the date or time for which to be ready, so we just have to be ready at a moment’s notice. We can’t just watch the calendar and, a few days leading up to His arrival, start getting our act together. We have to do it right now. We have to make sure we’re right with Him, that we’ve accepted the gift of salvation He gave us on the cross, that we’re guarding our hearts and keeping our eyes focused upward. At the end of the day we want to be prepared, so that when He comes we can just run to Him with joy and cry out His name in amazement that He’s really right there in front of us. It’ll be a reunion that’s been a long time coming.

While I’m thankful for the blessing of all my kiddos coming, and the excitement of the anticipation, I’m even more grateful for the knowledge of knowing Christ is preparing for ME. And He ‘s coming back, folks. That’s something to prepare for yourself – today – and over which to be ever-watchful with an excited eye trained to the sky.

“There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live.” John 14:2-3

“I don’t think, friends, that I need to deal with the question of when all this is going to happen. You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other—“We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!”—suddenly everything will fall apart. It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.” 1 Thessalonians 5:2 MSG

“Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into. You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.” Matthew 24:43-44 NLT

“It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us…Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!” Romans 10:9 MSG