Ready-Or Sorry!

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

1 Thessalonians 5:2

When the late President Eisenhower was vacationing in Denver many years ago, his attention was called to an open letter in a local newspaper, which told how six-year-old Paul Haley, dying of incurable cancer, had expressed a wish to see the president of the United States. Spontaneously, in one of those gracious gestures remembered long after a man’s most carefully prepared speeches are forgotten, the president decided to grant the boy’s request.

So one Sunday morning in August, a big limousine pulled up outside the Haley home, and out stepped the president. He walked up to the door and knocked.

Mr. Donald Haley opened the door, wearing blue jeans, an old shirt, and a day’s growth of beard. Behind him was his little son, Paul. Their amazement at finding President Eisenhower on their doorstep can be imagined.

“Paul,” said the president to the little boy, “I understand you want to see me. Glad to see you.” Then he shook hands with the six-year-old, took him out to see the presidential limousine, shook hands again, and left.

The Haleys and their neighbors, and a lot of other people, probably talked about this kind and thoughtful deed of a busy president for a long time. Only one person was not entirely happy about it—that was Mr. Haley. He can never forget how he was dressed when he opened the door. “Those jeans, the old shirt, the unshaven face—what a way to meet the president of the United States!” he said.

Of course, the visit was unannounced, and under the circumstances it wasn’t to be expected that he would be all dressed up in his best clothes. But all his life he wished he had gotten up a bit earlier that day, shaved a little sooner, and at least put on a clean shirt before the president arrived. Readiness and watchfulness are all urged upon Christians, lest Christ’s coming, taking us by surprise, should find us unprepared.

Our Father and our God, I want to be prepared when Christ comes again to claim His own. I want to be spiritually pure and holy. I want to be dressed in Your righteousness and forgiveness and to be watching and ready so I can meet Him when the time has come. In His name. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).