Like A Thief In The Night!

   

As I dove into my personal study this morning I came across an interesting title that is given to us. I had never heard this title before and if i had I sure wasn't paying attention like i am now. The title came from the Doctrine of Covenants (106) as a revelation given to Joseph Smith:

4 And again, verily I say unto you, the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and it overtaketh the world as a thief in the night—

  5 Therefore, gird up your loins, that you may be the children of light, and that day shall not overtake you as a thief. 

 

Interesting analogy that was used in this revelation. I thought it clever how it was said Christ second coming would be like a thief in the night. We all know that thieves need to be very sneaky and good at what they do or else they will be caught. From this thought process I wanted to dive deeper into this concept/title of "Children of Light". So I did and it led me to John (12):

 

35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

  36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them. 

 

 Hm... so if we are surrounded in darkness we can't see the "thief" when he comes. We might be able to see a figure of a person but with that alone we cannot know for sure who that person is. Some may guess and have suspistions of who that person might be, but there is no SURE knowledge. Still, what does children of light even mean? Let's turn to Doctrine and Covenants again (6):

 

 21 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am the same that came unto mine own, and mine own received me not. I am the light which shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. 

 

Sweet! Christ is the "light", in other words we are "Children of Christ". Now on to the harder part of this subject. I say all this with love though. In order to know when the thief comes we need that light on inside of us. We need to KNOW Christ. When we try our best to understand who He is and all He has done we begin to grasp the image of Christ, that way when He comes He will not pass us by and us not know that He has come. Those who have not tried to know Christ are not only those who have never heard or read of Him, but those who have chosen to stray away from what He has taught. He taught that we should be like Him, knowing that we cannot be perfect in this life and that we mess up He gave us the ultimate gift of repentance. Which is the ability to change ourselves around, anything that is opposite of God's will.

 

Let ourselves be "unspotted from the world". Let us rekindle (if needed) that light of Christ within us, so that we may see Him as He is. To be part of those that will rejoice and sing because we know Him. Let us be Children of Light!