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Last night was, according to some reports, the coldest night in history for this part of Florida.  There were even a few people that stayed up for a good part of the night hoping to witness a few scattered flakes of snow.  A lot of preparation went into dealing with what was forecasted as a ‘frigid’ night with the temperature dropping to 27F.  Needless to say, the Canadians here did not stay up in the hopes of seeing snow, after all a major reason to come here is to avoid seeing snow.  But we did have to make some important preparations like covering our plants and leaving our taps dribbling all night to prevent the plumbing under the trailer from freezing.

              We do spend a fair amount of time in our lives ‘preparing’. For example, we will soon be preparing for our long trip home.  Growing up one of my favourite uncles was my uncle Bill Ross.  Uncle Bill was a Baptist pastor who pastored the Baptist church in Neustadt before moving to Pittsburgh to pastor a church there.  A memory that I’m sure will be with me forever is visiting Uncle Bill and Aunt Ruby in their Pittsburgh home in 1960.  Uncle Bill had this magical device called a TV and the Pirates and the Yankees were playing in the world series.  In the ninth inning of the seventh game, we watched Bill Mazeroski hit a walk off home run winning the series for Pittsburgh fans such as my Uncle Bill.  It stands today as the only world series seventh game nineth inning walk off home run in Major League Baseball history.

              Not long after that Uncle Bill and Aunt Rudy planned a trip to Canada to visit their relatives here.  Uncle Bill prepared for his return posting his prepared sermon title for all to see.  It was taken from Amos chapter four verse twelve.  “Prepare to meet your God.” Naturally we were all excited awaiting their arrival and looking forward to family fellowship with them. All was going well but as they were driving through what was then the Galt Preston area Uncle Bill suffered some kind of attack was admitted to a hospital and died a few hours later.  Many would say that the sermon that he had prepared was never preached, but it was preached loudly and well illustrated in my heart.  It is a sermon of utmost importance.  I think it could be argued that its one of the most if not the most important sermon that could ever be preached.

              Lakeland is not a big city, about the size of Waterloo, but last year fifteen people died as a result of someone running a red light.  Such stats remind us that every day is a gift and that preparing to meet your God is a preparation we cannot afford to put off.  Are you prepared?

Pastor Dave