“For all the saints who from their labors rest …” With those words, at the beginning of November, we celebrate All Saints Day and remember the believers who are now at rest with the Lord. Yes, we may shed some tears, but we do not weep for them as the world weeps, despairing of ever seeing them again. No indeed! On the contrary, we look boldly through our tears to another day, “a yet more glorious Day,” that is still to come.

That Day is the Day when Jesus will come again, just as He promised. On that Day, the saints, triumphant, will rise from the dead “in bright array,” and rejoice as “the King of Glory passes on His way.” It will be the Day of Resurrection, the first Day of our everlasting life with God!

Each November is bracketed by these two great (yet often unnoticed) celebrations: All Saints Day at the beginning, and the Last Sunday of the Church year near the end. We start the month recalling the names of those believers in Christ who have departed this life over the past year. Then, near the end of the month, the Scriptures offer us a glimpse of our Savior’s return. He shall come, as we say in the creed, “with glory to judge both the living and the dead.”

Alas, it seems we’re often too busy to even notice, much less celebrate, these days, particularly the latter day. Our lives are filled with preparations and activities surrounding Thanksgiving, hunting season, and Christmas. Even when people do find the time to come to church, they’re preoccupied with these other, festive things. It can be hard to stop and really contemplate, to turn our thoughts and imaginations to what it will be like when that Last Day actually arrives, when we reach the End of this Age and enter into the glory of the Age to come.

Where to begin? You might consider these words: “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’” (Isaiah 25:6-9. Didn’t think I’d start in the Old Testament, did you?)

Then there’s Jesus words, “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.” (Mark 13:24-27)

And Paul’s words, too: “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18)

Yes, there is so much more to be said! Consider Matthew 25, 1 Corinthians 15, and Revelation 21. The promises held out to God’s faithful people are wonderful, indeed! And right now, we have time to share those promises with others, that many more may join us in that glorious Day that is yet to come! So let us end this Church year telling the Good News of Jesus!