She strained her eyes to see through the darkness.  No light, not even a spark in the distance.  No sign of her visitor.

“Soon,” she said to herself as she closed the door to her simple home.  She moved across the room, checked the bread baking in the oven, and made sure the bottle was still full of wine.  She had to be ready.  She turned the wick in her lamp up a little higher.  It was darker than usual out, after all.  The light had to be seen from far away. 

He could see the faint light from a great distance.  He had to make it to that light.  He knew that was where he had to go.  He had no doubt that he would find nourishment and maybe a little oil for his nearly empty lamp.  If he could only get there before he ran out of time.

The bread was just coming out of the oven when she heard a knock on the door.  “Hmm, I don’t think it’s my visitor, but I will answer.”  She was right.  The man standing at her door was not the one she was waiting for, but this man needed her.  She couldn’t turn him away.

He rested by the fire, had a little bread and wine.  He felt refreshed when he rose from the chair and accepted the woman’s offer of oil for his lamp and a small bundle with bread and a little more wine for the road.  He was certain he could go on a little further now.

She closed the door behind him, locking it tightly.  The oil was getting low and the flour for the bread would have to last.  She couldn’t waste it carelessly.  She had to be certain that any other visitors were going to use them for their journey and not foolishly.  “Soon,” she said to herself again as she moved toward the kitchen to make more bread.  Any moment, another could arrive.  She had to be ready.  She had to be ready when He arrived.

The man traveled down the road, offering the other weary travelers bits of the bread and drops of oil to keep their lamps burning.  The lamps could not run out.  The travelers could not faint.  They had to be ready.

“Soon,” he said quietly to himself as he continued down the road.  Soon, he would not need his lamp.  He would come and the Light would shine so bright that he would not need the lamp.  Until then, he had to keep traveling and sharing his bread and oil.

 “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.” Matthew 5:16

“Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and glory.”  Mark 13:26

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”  Mark 13:32