I have always been raised in church and gave my heart to the Lord and felt His spirit move on me when I was only five years old at Tiger Mountain church camp. Of course over the years, I have fallen from grace from time to time, but His mercy has kept me and His unfailing love has always brought me back to Him. As I have grown in His wisdom, I have been taught and believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ. In the Bible the return of Jesus Christ is likened to the coming of a thief in the night. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 states “You know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” and there have been many signs of His soon returning in the past few years. However, I wonder who will hear the sound and call to go up higher?

As a believer I often think we get little reminders to “be ready” and just the other morning I was reminded that He is coming whether we believe it or not.

In my 54 years on this earth, I have gone from living in the city to the country to city limits again. Of course, I have always loved living in the country and opening the windows to hear the crickets at night, bullfrogs in the farm ponds and even the coyotes howling in the distance. However, after moving from city to country to a few other cities, I eventually ended up in Muskogee, where I’ve been for the past five years. Of course, in town I had to get used to the car doors shutting and it not being in our drive. I had to try and tune out ambulances wailing their sirens in the middle of the night and I had to understand the fact that it wasn’t safe to leave my windows open at night anymore like I did in the country.

So, imagine my surprise when I woke up to music blaring outside my bedroom window and my American Pitbull pup bristled up and wouldn’t stop barking to warn me something wasn’t right. Of course, I dropped down to the floor and pulled my gun from its holster as I peek out the window to see who was crazy enough to be in my yard at 4:30 a.m. As I scanned the yard, I then pulled up all my house security cameras on my phone and I’m relieved to see no thief is trying to break into my home.

However, I still haven’t identified where the resounding music is coming from, so I let my guard dog out into my back yard to check out everything, while I stepped out the front. That’s when I realized it is Christian worship music and it’s coming from Muskogee First Assembly off Gulick St. just a couple blocks away. The church usually plays music on church nights and during their Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza. But for some unforeseen reason, several blocks were being serenaded by worship music in the wee hours of the morning.

First, I have to admit I’m a little annoyed but then I become amused by the fact no one else on my block was even outside their homes “looking for the bad guy” or in this case, a church sound board that had gone wild. So I called 911 to report the incident and make sure the church hadn’t been broken into. Then I recorded how loud it actually was on my cell phone and called my husband to let him hear it too. Afterwards I laughed more because it made all my feral cats come up and they were ready to eat. (I think they thought Jesus was calling them to the dining table – All who are hungry, come and dine.)

So after I fed all my feral fur babies, we listened to a few more worship songs together outside (as it took a while before the music stopped playing). I even gave them an altar call and told them “Jesus was coming soon” so they better be good kitties. The good news is they all got saved that morning. LOL (Yes, I’m one of those people that believe our animals will be waiting on us in heaven, along with family and friends.)

Anyways after the hour-long wake up call, I decided to just stay up and begin my morning devotion too. After all, God had definitely gotten my full attention. I literally laughed aloud as I read my daily devotional in the Bible app, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bone.” LOL Yes, God seriously has a sense of humor! Though I thought my alarming wake-up call might have been a thief at first, I found out it was just my Savior waking me up and started me on my way.

After reading several plans and passages, I turned on my own praise music, prayed for my family, my friends and for those who still maybe need a unique wake-up call like I had received. Then I thanked Him for waking me up early and reminding me to “always be ready.”

For one day, it won’t be just a rehearsal dinner, it will be the actual calling away and who will hear the sound? I believe I will be ready when He catches His bride away and I am praying that you will be ready too.