But none of us knows when the time of our wedding will come. Only the Father, the One who has arranged our marriage and is preparing our wedding knows that. Not even the Son, the Bridegroom, knew when the moment would come. And so we must each one be ready, as if it were today. We must use earth to be ready for heaven. We must live every day prepared for it to be our last day, ready for the time when our Groom comes and our wedding commences and eternity begins.

How?

We share our faith, for we want as many as possible to be part of the Wedding. Every person you know will spend eternity either in paradise with God or separated from his blessed heaven forever. You hold the invitation to the Wedding. Why wouldn't you give it to everyone you can?

We do all we can to improve life on this earth, because we want the King who is our Groom to be pleased with his kingdom when he returns. We must do all we can to end racism and war, poverty and disease, environmental and relational sin. We want to show him that we managed his property well, that we took good care of his estate while he was gone, that we loved his people as he loves them.

We spend our days in personal holiness, for we want our Groom to be pleased with his Bride when he comes for us. The Bible describes sin as spiritual adultery, for that is what it is. We want our garments to be white and holy.

Listen to C. S. Lewis: "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this." We want our lives and world to be ready for our Groom when he comes for his bride. If it were today, would you be ready?

So we are to live for the future because this is the best way to redeem the present. We are to live for heaven because this is the best way to live on earth. We are to be ready for eternity because this is the best way to be ready for tomorrow. Why?

Lewis continues: "Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither. It seems a strange rule, but something like it can be seen at work in other matters. Health is a great blessing, but the moment you make health one of your main, direct objects you start becoming a crank and imagining there is something wrong with you. You are likely to get health provided you want other things more--food, games, work, fun, open air. In the same way, we shall never save civilisation (sic) as long as civilisation is our main object. We must learn to want something else even more" (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 118-9).

When I live for heaven and eternity, I am motivated to teach God's word today in a way which will please him, not just to fulfill my Sunday morning responsibilities--and that makes me a better pastor. (God save us from those who preach only because it is Sunday.)

When you live for heaven and eternity, you care more for the souls and eternal lives of your employees than their monetary value to you--and that makes you a better employer. You care more about your integrity than you do your salary--and that makes you a better employee. You care more about the wellbeing of your clients or patients then their ability to pay you--and that makes you a better lawyer or doctor. You care more about the souls of your friends than their popularity or status--and that makes you a better friend.

When we live for heaven, we live our best lives on earth. All the while, we please and honor our Groom for this time when we are engaged but not yet married. And when the wedding hour comes, we will be glad forever that we were ready.