Mark Hitchcock has written a readable, comprehensive book on things to come. The End
In the second year of our marriage I was blessed with a pulpit and a perish in Mercer County, Ohio not far from the Indiana border. We were in our early twenties. The good men of the church (Bob Thees and Jerry Heibie) came with their pick-ups and moved our simple belongings into the nice parsonage. It was a small Cape Cod set in the corner of succotash field (corn one year, beans the next). On the opposite corner of Swamp Road was the Church—white clapboard with a steeple and bell surrounded by a cemetery. Just enough room for a little parking and a volleyball court. Church volleyball was big in little churches along the Ohio-Indiana border.
That summer Lois planted a garden and tended her vegetables. We played house and started to learn the art of pastoring. Our bedroom was in the Northwest corner of the house. A half-mile to the west was a lovely wood and then, beyond, another. Through the wood ran a creek. Between the wood and the house acres and acres of corn grew strait and Ohio tall reaching up all summer toward the sun.
By October it was dry and golden-brown. Early in the month it was harvested. Now the wind blew unhindered from the west over off the woods and the barren field and through our bedroom through large casement windows. Storms would sometimes roil in from the west crashing and thundering and blowing the curtains. For some reason the memory of it is sweet to me.
My study was in the northeast corner of the house until we got the news that we were going to be parents. Then the room was painted blue. We knew our firstborn would be a son. We just knew. We outfitted the nursery with Jenny Lind baby furniture. The good men of the church moved my bookshelves to the church.
One winter night our love turned into the beginning of a tiny baby boy. Winter turned to Spring turned to Summer. Now autumn had come and we were about to meet our little boy. We went to bed early that late autumn night October 29, 1981. We slept for just a short time when Lois woke me up. We had had a few false starts but this time she had a look of dark determination on her face. She quietly said, “We need to go now.”
“Are you sure.”
“Yes. I’m sure. Let’s go… Is this it. This is it.”
“How do you know?”
“I know. This is it.”
It was. The next morning our lives were forever wonderfully changed.
The memory came back to me in my study the other day. I was studying the return of Jesus Christ in power and great glory immediately after the Tribulation of those days. Jesus told his disciples that He would return to the earth one day. He said it would be like the coming of spring. He said it would be like the Days of Noah. He said it would be like a woman with birth pangs. He will come with his saints to judge and rule and establish a Kingdom on Earth. How will they know? They will know. Every eye will see him. His return will be glorious and literal and powerful and visible. There will be no doubt about it—absolutely no doubt… Think about that. It will do you good. Be ready.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
March 18, 2013