There is something about waiting for an important event that changes the way we live before it arrives.

When parents are expecting their first child, they do not wait until the baby is born to begin preparing. They paint the nursery, buy a crib, install a car seat, rearrange schedules, and rethink the family budget. The baby has not arrived yet, but the certainty of what is coming has already begun to reshape their priorities.

That is the picture Paul gives us of the Christian life. Jesus has promised that He will return. We do not know the day or the hour, and we cannot control when it happens. But the certainty of His return should change the way we live right now.