Be ready for Jesus

What’s the most important part of Thanksgiving dinner? The turkey! Some people don’t eat meat or they like other things for Thanksgiving, but most people eat turkey.

Imagine if the person cooking the turkey forgot about it and it got burned! You’d have a Thanksgiving dinner with stuffing, vegetables, dessert — and no turkey.

Jesus would understand why it’s important to keep watch when you’re cooking a Thanksgiving turkey. In this week’s Gospel (Mark 13:33-37), He talks about watching for something else: when He comes back someday, at the end of the world.

“Watch out!” Jesus said. “You don’t know when I’ll come back. I’m like a man who leaves on a trip, puts his servants in charge and tells them to watch for his return. Watch, because you don’t know if the master of this house will come at midnight or sunrise. If I come back suddenly, I’d better not find you sleeping. Watch!”

People who cook Thanksgiving dinner have to be careful. If the turkey isn’t cooked enough, it’s gross; if it’s cooked too much, it gets burned. You have to watch to make sure it’s just right.

If watching a turkey is that important to us, it’s a LOT more important to keep watching for Jesus! You know when the turkey will be ready, but we don’t know at all when Jesus will be ready to come back to us. We have to be ready for Him any time!

The best part of Thanksgiving dinner is the turkey, but there are other things to get ready: cooking the other food, setting the table and getting everyone to sit down.

To get ready for Jesus, we can’t just sit around, either. We have to follow the Ten Commandments and be as nice to everyone as we hope they will be to us.

If the turkey is done, it’s time for Thanksgiving dinner. But since we don’t know when the world will be “done” and Jesus, the “master of our house,” will come back, we have to always be ready for Him. You never know when Jesus might come to dinner!

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK: Jesus, help me to listen to you, so I’m ready whenever you come back! Amen. Happy Thanksgiving!