There’s an inside joke in our branch. It’s about the “Coming Soon Cafe.” 

Here’s how the joke started: The brothers take turns driving our 15-passenger van on Sunday mornings to pick up folks on the Indian Reservation in Whiteriver and bring them to church. 

As you cruise into Whiteriver, you see the hospital, the supermarket, the Burger King, and a handful of local shops and businesses. One day, the brothers saw a massive sign on one of the old buildings that said “Coming Soon!”

They chatted about it with the brothers and sisters on the van, everyone wondering what was coming soon. A restaurant? A shop?

Turns out, they’d never know. 

The sign was up for months…then years. It got weatherbeaten and dingy. That’s about the time we turned it into a joke, calling it the Coming Soon Cafe. 

Now, when the van passes that sign, someone might joke and say, “WOW, look, something is coming soon!” And everybody cackles.

In life, we can get jaded. Flights get cancelled. The babysitter falls through. The laundry pile in the corner never gets folded. Your text goes unanswered. We learn skepticism. Carry a perpetual grain of salt in our pocket.

But here’s the good news: We don’t have to apply that same cynicism to the Lord. 

God has promised many things in His word and through revelation. We don’t have to approach God’s promises with doubt, as we sometimes do with our fellow humans. Instead, we have the freedom to approach God’s promises with a bright and firm faith.

He’s not going to let us down. 

When the prophets said that Jesus would come to earth, He did. That’s what we’re celebrating right now during the Christmas season. 

Jesus ALSO promised that He’d be coming back soon.

In Revelations 22, it’s stated three times:

Verse 7: “Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”

Verse 12: “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”

Verse 20: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

If He says He’ll be back, then He’ll be back. 

It will never, ever turn into a joke like the Coming Soon Cafe. Nor will it pass away into legend or myth.

I was reminded of this when I heard about how my 7-year-old niece reacted when she first learned that Jesus promised to come back one day. Her eyes widened. “REALLY?” she asked. When her mom said “Yes, really,” she jumped up and down and shouted, “YAY!”

We, too, can lay aside all doubt, with childlike faith.

God has big plans for the future, and He’s given us countless Coming Soon signs to prepare our hearts. When Jesus does return, I pray that He finds up keeping His sayings, doing work that’s worthy of spiritual reward, and hoping fiercely for that day.

This article has undergone ministry review and approval.