"What will you do in the day of visitation, when devastation comes from afar?" — Isaiah 10:3
Visitation is as old as creation. In the cool of the day, God walked in the garden and came down to be with the man and woman He had made (Genesis 3:8). He has never stopped visiting His people. But a visitation is not always the same thing — it can bring blessing or reckoning, depending on who is visiting and why. Isaiah's question is not whether God will visit; it is what we will do when He does.
Scripture reads like a record of divine visitations. God came to Adam and Eve in the garden (Genesis 3). He visited Abraham and Sarah with the promise of a son (Genesis 18). He met Paul and Silas in a Philippian prison at midnight, and the foundations shook (Acts 16:25-27). He sent His angel to Mary with a greeting that changed the world (Luke 1:30). He comes for fellowship, to appraise the heart, to warn, to reward — and, when He is ignored, to judge.
When God visits in mercy, weeping turns to joy. A widow at Nain buried her only son and walked home with him alive (Luke 7:11-17); a tomb in Bethany opened and Lazarus came out (John 11). He defends His own and fights their battles, as He did for Israel against all the might of Egypt (Exodus 7-11). He listens, He guides, and He reveals His counsel, as He did for Jacob (Genesis 31). His visitation is comfort, strength, and protection for the one who belongs to Him.
Yet a visitation can also find us unready. A laissez-faire heart that shrugs, "whatever will be, will be," as the house of Eli did (1 Samuel 3:13). Procrastination — a little sleep, a little slumber (Proverbs 6:10). Doubt and delay, like the generation that mocked Noah until the rain came (Genesis 7; 2 Peter 3:4), or the five foolish virgins who dozed with empty lamps (Matthew 25:1-13). Spiritual laziness that will not pray, fast, or search the Scriptures (Proverbs 6:6). A life spent chasing pleasure and false security, forgetting that it is appointed unto man once to die (Proverbs 21:17; Hebrews 9:27). And ungodly company, for bad companions corrupt good character (Proverbs 13:20; 1 Corinthians 15:33). Any of these can leave the soul asleep when the Master comes.
So how do we stay ready? With righteousness — letting our yes be yes and our no be no (Matthew 5:37). With holiness, which is never 99 percent, for without it no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). With commitment and selflessness that gladly spends and is spent for others (2 Corinthians 12:15). With a forgiving heart (Matthew 6:14-15). And with a real thirst for His presence — setting our minds on things above and running our race with our eyes fixed on Jesus (Colossians 3:1-2; Hebrews 12:1-2).
When Jesus visited Jerusalem, He wept over the city, because it did not recognize the time of its visitation (Luke 19:41-44). The question for you and me is just as tender and just as searching: if He visits us today, will He leave laughing or weeping? May the grace and power of God find us ready. Amen.