1 Thessalonians 4:15–17: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

July 3rd, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This is an astounding revelation from the Lord to us, that when He returns and calls us to Himself, those alive in Christ will not precede those who have already died. When it says, “we who are alive and remain shall be caught up” the Greek word for “caught up” is harpazo and means “to seize, and carry off by force.” In classical Greek, it is a sudden swoop of force that cannot be resisted. For all practical purposes, the resurrection of the dead and the rapture, or being caught up, of the living, will be a simultaneous event. Only a moment of time will separate the resurrection of the dead and the translation of the living; it will happen as 1 Corinthians 15:51–52 says, “in the twinkling of an eye.”

My siblings and I grew up in Southern California, in a canyon that is still, for a few months of the year, the temporary home for Monarch butterflies. In the early summer, under the eucalyptus trees, we kids would find empty cocoons scattered all over the ground. After the butterflies escape, the cocoons they leave behind are as light as a feather. Just a few months earlier, these caterpillars somehow knew to crawl up the tree trunk and attach themselves to a twig. Safely inside the chrysalis, they slowly underwent metamorphosis and emerged a few weeks later as spectacular butterflies. Leaving the thin cocoons to fall to the ground, they easily took to the air, even though they had never experienced flying before. Someday each of us will receive a new body and effortlessly experience flight, even though we’ve never flown before. We can count on it, because God promised it. Every person on earth should live each new day as the day that Jesus is returning. One day it will happen suddenly—today just might be that day.

“LORD, we look for You to come again soon to rule and reign.”