“Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail. When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late.”

Last week I saw a guy stringing Christmas lights into trees.  I looked around and I saw his van which showed he was part of a company that does this work.  I said to him, “Wow, you are ahead of the game this year.”  His response to me was, “In my business, I’m either early or I’m late.”  I can see that.  While in many businesses, we strive for just in time to control inventory and supply chain issues (remember back when we were able to control and manage a supply chain), there is something to be said for being early.  As I like to say, “There is no stress in being early.”

I’ve been wracking my brain and the scriptures to try and find a time that Jesus was late.  There was the time when Martha attempted to tell Jesus that He was late and because of that Lazarus died, but Jesus quickly corrected that wrong assumption.  And there are no accounts during His ministry that He left people waiting for Him when He said He was going to somewhere (or at least none that I can find).  Why is this?  Well, among so many other reasons, I see it that Jesus respected other people and He knew that time on this earth (His being short) is a gift and we are not to waste it or abuse it.  And, we know that He was an early riser and got a jump on the day before others got going.  And finally, He does tell us that are consequences to being late to accept His invitation to join Him in His eternal Kingdom.  So, maybe we are to hear that word and we should strive to not be late for Him or others and better yet be early.

Luke 13:24-26 (New Living Translation)