When I answered the phone, the conversation started in the usual way. My close friend asked if it was an okay time to talk, and I responded that it was.
Then our conversation took a direction it never had in the previous thirty years. I asked her how she was doing, and she said, “Not so good.” I asked why and she informed me that she had cancer. I don’t know if a heart can momentarily stop, but I know I stopped breathing before I choked out, “I am so sorry.” I’m not as clear on the rest of the call, but I know I offered to come help her after surgery or whenever she wanted.
I started planning to be ready, so when she did call I would be able to leave quickly. Each day I would do something to prepare for the trip. When I did laundry, I didn’t put away my favorite jeans or my shirt that doesn’t wrinkle. Instead, I started a pile of clothes to be thrown into a suitcase. I checked my prescriptions to see if any needed refills. A backpack became a collection of random items I thought I might need for the trip.
A couple weeks passed and I had most the essential things together so I could leave on short notice. While I was out running errands, I made an extra stop at a local drugstore, and waited in line. After giving the clerk a few dollars, I asked for it all back in quarters. I knew there were toll roads I’d have to travel to visit my friend and the quarters would be useful.
Get Ready for Heaven
When I got to my car and was putting the quarters away, a thought hit me–something that was worth more than money. Here I was planning and working daily towards the goal of seeing my friend, but what was I doing each day to get ready for heaven?
Was I preparing daily for that trip? If I believed in my heart that my Savior and Friend was going to come, shouldn’t I be making sure each day that my thoughts and actions reflected that I wanted to be ready?!
Now when I see a quarter it reminds me I should be working towards getting ready for the most important trip any of us will ever take. I hope every quarter reminds you too. We need to daily be packing our hearts with Jesus’ love and our minds with things that draw us heavenward. As much as I want to see and spend time with my earthly friends, I want to be ready when Jesus comes even more. Don’t you?
“Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:13).
