I have a sign that reads:

Don’t make me come down there!
God

How many of us remember one of our parents yelling that to us when we were kids?

Never, ever, in the history of my life was that a good thing. Just once it would have been good to have my Mom say “Don’t make me come down there and give you treats!”

That would have been cool.

But maybe parents aren’t supposed to be cool.

That sign always make me smile and my sister in law, Carol, taped a personal note to the back side of it tells me how special I am and that God would be pleased with me even if he had to come down here.

Imagine God actually coming down here. Go ahead close your eyes. Unless you’re driving, then don’t close your eyes.

So God comes down to your house or room. Would he really be pleased with you? Or would he be carrying a big stick bent on punishing you for your latest bit of stupidity?  You know I am not sure he’d be all that pleased with me and I doubt he’d be taking a swing at my thick head.

I believe He would love me. Not because I deserve it. And He’d forgive me if I asked Him to forgive me. To be certain, God would not put up with any of my sinning, but He would be ready to accept me into His arms the moment I repented.

But this sign, ‘Don’t make me come down there!’ is not just an idle threat like the kind Dad’s used to make when they were driving. Chances are he was not going to climb over the seat, smack you a good one, and then climb back into the driver’s seat. Of course, the car would eventually stop and then you’d get it!

With God, He is patient and loving just as the Apostle Peter writes in his second book of the New Testament. You see when God climbs over the seat and does come down here; His punishment is really more a consequence. The consequence of not believing in Jesus is eternal. In Chapter three of the second book, Peter writes that God doesn’t want anyone to perish but for everyone to change their hearts and lives.

That makes it personal. So when God does come down here, as He promised us all He would, it is with our relationship with Him in mind. Jesus is the only way to heaven and so if you believe in Jesus and have changed your hearts and lives, no worries. You can personally welcome God down here. If not, you are out of options when he does return.

But there’s more than just us and God at stake here. Remember when your parents would get so mad, they would run down the list of all their kid’s names? That’s when you knew you pushed way too far!

Most of the time my name was last on that list. Let me tell you it is never a good thing if your name is yelled out last! Unless there was an and between the names. That meant you and someone else were in trouble. There was always room to wiggle out of some thing if someone else was also getting the blame.

God will come down here and judge the world. Lots of things are wrong down here. Things like abortion, booting God out of schools, and putting sin up as the moral standard come to mind.

The earth and all that is in it was created by God. Then sin and mankind got married so to speak. This took people away from God and the further away from God we get, the more I can imagine him standing in heaven and looking down here and shaking his head.

“Don’t make me come down there!” is a cute saying but I am thinking he is saying something like; ‘Soon I will come down there!”