It had snowed a little and now the day was warmer. Snow melting into slush, urged on by a steady rain. I was enjoying how my new wiper inserts were swiping the windshield nice and clean with the rain. Pavement was devoid of snow or ice. Just a nice day of rain...not too cold.

As usual, I went home for lunch, enjoying a firm tire-hold on the pavement...in the rain. The neighbor called, saying her neighbor's elm tree had fallen. I didn't take too much notice...it was a rather raggedy old Elm anyway.

Back at work I noticed it was continuing to rain all afternoon. I was so engrossed in my project of swapping computers around, installing software and getting everything to work that I didn't notice what was happening. Even though the power flickered a bit, I simply thought, "Nothing unusual. That sometimes happens when it rains a lot."

Time to go home. Truck is all covered in ice. Traffic snailing along, being detoured away from fallen trees. Once past the controlled intersections, lights not working, street lights not on, no lights in houses. In the truck's headlights, the rest of the way home looked like a war zone. Zig zag to avoid the rubble of the fallen trees in the street.

A LOUD "CRACK" resonates through the neighborhood as I get out of my truck at home. Evergreen boughs crashing to the ground. I grope my way around to where I know the flashlight sits. We find ourselves in the worst ice storm in 30 years. Over 150,000 without power. Businesses closed. Some stores open in the dark to sell batteries, Coleman gas, lanterns, candles.

Then I thought, "How like sin this is." This storm did not come in with gale force winds. There was no thunder and lighting to make its presence known. Just a quiet steady rain. The symptoms not at first present because it didn't "feel" that cold...nor was I slipping around on the road.

But while the world was blissfully passing by, the ice was steadily building up on vegetation. THEN, it was TOO LATE! No way to stop the falling branches and trunks. The damage, once started, could not be stopped. Power lines down, houses damaged. Too late to do that long- overdue pruning.

Sin comes in the same way. We go along merrily singing "Praise the Lord." But here a little word is changed in a new Bible translation. There a little compromise is allowed...after all, confrontation against the evil would be "unloving & judgmental." Over there the pastor tells stories for the "praise of men," and finds some out-of-context Scripture to tack on, to make things "sound" spiritual. ...doesn't tell people they need to turn from their sin. If he did, after all, he'd have to deal with his own!

"There is a way that [seems] right to a man, but its end is the way of death." (Pr14:12) The rain "seemed" OK. But in the end, utter devastation, days of hardship in a proclaimed "State of Disaster Area" ...and DEATH!

Many power lines went down where trees had been neglected and not been pruned properly. When the storm came, and the boughs were crashing, it was too late to "fix" it.

Dear Reader: has YOUR life been "pruned?" Are you ready for Judgment? If the sin has been pruned away, when judgment comes you will hear "well done, good and faithful servant...enter into the joy of your Lord."(Mt25:21) "But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie."(Rev22:15) "And there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth."(Mt13:42)

The time is coming, soon, when Christ will say "It is done!" ...for the time is at hand. "He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still. ...and behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to His work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the last." (~Rev21:6,22:13)

Amen! Even so, come Lord Jesus!