SS Thoughts #26: Asleep or Awake?

Visiting Alaska has been an awesome experience – one that is hard to describe :) A few of my favorite memories are shared below… One tour guide shared the view that visiting Alaska should be postponed till one is old – since visiting Alaska when you are young could spoil you for anywhere else! Hmmmm….

The arctic is extremely cold in the winter. Many animals hibernate in order to survive. Even whole towns in Alaska shut down during the winter months! But the Arctic Wooly Bear caterpillar is special. Unlike other caterpillars that spend almost all their time feeding, before changing into a cocoon and later into a butterfly or moth, a Wooly Bear caterpillar spends only about 5% of its life feeding. It can feed only during the 3-4 months of summer and then it becomes frozen solid during the long winter. It wakes up only when it senses warmer temperatures, and begins feeding again. Wooly Bear caterpillars actually sleep for 7 to 14 YEARS before changing into the adult moth!

Here is the analogy: As Christians we believe in the soon coming of Jesus Christ. But some of us will be sleeping in our graves until Jesus returns to wake us in the first resurrection. Often it seems like such a looong time to be sleeping, but when we wake that time will seem but a moment—a mere twinkling of an eye. And what a transformation that will be - as different from what we are now as the butterfly is different from the caterpillar!

But let us who are still awake not fall asleep (figuratively) thinking that Christ’s return is far off. That is Satan’s plan…. Instead let us be constantly alert and active in sharing the good news of the gospel and hastening Christ’s return…..