While growing up, we used to look forward to the weekends because that is when daddy comes home. It was a mix of excitement and fear. Excitement because we had not seen him for a whole week as he worked in another town, and fear because it was the time of reckoning.
If you had misbehaved during the week, your case would be judged and you never could tell if it was koboko (horse whip) that will be your judgement or to write a letter of undertaking that if it ever happened again, you will be disowned. I think I feared the latter more because I could not imagine how I would survive if my father disowned me.
The weekend was also a time to show some seriousness. For the time he was around, you must prove that you are studious. So you read by force and watch less of TV. The VHS video player would normally go on holiday.
While pondering on this past, I drew a parallel between the waiting period for my dad’s home coming, the judgement time and the level of seriousness we had to put and the second coming of Jesus.
First, there was the waiting and longing for my dad’s coming and there is also the waiting and longing for the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Secondly, we always wanted him to come home at weekends but there was always a mixed feeling especially when you have done something wrong during the week in which my mum had said she was going to report to my dad. Being a lovely mum she was, she would many times not report but that is after she may have dealt with us in her own way, like giving ‘abara’ or using the rubber slippers of that time to slap the hand. Many times it would just be a reprimand.
There were nevertheless some ‘crime’ that could not be hidden or managed by mum. An example was when myself and my younger brother were forming artist. We used blade to cut out paper pictures on a stool with a leather surface and we had the leather shredded. That I am writing this means I survived the judgement, but it was almost without mercy.
Another time we would not look forward to his coming home was when the school term had ended and we had our results. This used to be the most dreaded time, not because the results were bad but because you would be ready to answer the question why you didn’t come first in your class in a subject. You are in a worst position if you had any red on your report sheet.
This is not different from what it would be like when Jesus comes and we are to give account of what we have done with the grace He gave us.
You might be looking forward to His second coming or not, truth is, He is coming back. What we should be concerned about is, will my report sheet be acceptable to Him?
Will there be ‘reds’ in my report sheet that could make Him cast me out of His presence?
Do I obey Him enough and do His will to be counted worthy to be on His right hand?
Before the report sheet, we would always form seriousness with our books, but when the report sheet was out, no more pretense.
With Jesus Christ, when the report sheet is out, we have no chance of changing it, we must bear the consequence of our actions.
It is only now that the jury is out we can ensure we have a clean sheet with Him.
Now is the time to make our lives count for Him because the Bible says in 2 Peter 3:10-11 (AMP)
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish with a [mighty and thunderous] roar, and the [material] elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and the works that are on it will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be [in the meantime] in holy behavior [that is, in a pattern of daily life that sets you apart as a believer] and in godliness [displaying profound reverence toward our awesome God],”
God bless you.
Akindele Afolabi
Christian Employee Series.