I remember it so well, one of the little kids would come running to the house as fast and hard as their legs would carry them.

“Mama, Mama!  Somebody’s coming!”

As kids growing up on our little mountain in the Ozarks, we lived a rather secluded life.

Our big old rambling home rather grew as our family grew, with Daddy adding on a room here and there, as there was another child coming.  We stretched the boundaries of sharing a room with the smaller ones as the years went by.  What had originally been a tiny little two-room house with a front porch, over the years became a home with seven large rooms and a closed in front porch.  It was ramshackle by most standards . . . but it was home.

Add to that, our property was set back in the woods, several miles from the tiny town of Evening Shade on a country dirt road.  Weeks on end would go by with no visitors, and rarely even the sound of a road-grader or school bus making its way down that old gravely road.

In the summer and fall months, Daddy often went off to work in towns some seventy or eighty miles away, leaving Mama with her brood of children to make do the best we could.  Some of my best memories are of those long summer days, picking fresh vegetables from the garden, reading books under ~ or up in ~ the big old cedar tree in the front yard, and enjoying the occasional thunderstorm that rumbled up over the mountain.

But, I digress. . .  On a clear day, you could hear anyone who might venture up our way, coming for at least a mile away.  The pop and snap of the gravel under the vehicle tires could be heard on the breeze, alerting us that someone was coming for a visit.

On more than one occasion, Mama would come hurrying toward the house from her garden, urging us older girls to “hurry and pick up the living room, we have company coming.”

Sometimes it might be our Grandpa and Grandma Stuntz coming from their home place some five or six miles to the north of us.  That was always a special treat, as they would bring unexpected goodies for us to munch on, or a new book for us to read.  For certain, they brought news of other family members; the aunts and cousins way up North in Indiana, a new baby being born to Aunt Anna, Uncle David getting married, or the pending visit of some of our Northern family.  Sometimes though, they simply came to check up on us.  I think they worried a little about Mama being so isolated with a houseful of children to care for.  Regardless, it was a much-anticipated treat for them to come.

On more than one occasion our Aunt Marie, Aunt Esther, or Aunt Velma made the long trek from Indiana to visit us, and each time was a wonderful treat.  Even once, our great Aunt Chloe came all the way from Florida, bringing us baskets of oranges, grapefruits and lemons that carried with them the smell of the sun, the sand, and the ocean.  Places of which we had only dreamed.

I specifically remember one time that the tires alerted us, and with bated breath we waited.  The car that topped the little rise just down from the house turned out to be our beloved Uncle Harold just back from his tour of duty in Vietnam.  Oh, the tears of joy and laughter that poured forth that day!!!  Our many prayers for his safety had been answered!

Other times it might be some of the family from way down South in Benton or Traskwood.  We especially loved it when our Auntie Alene and her big family came, or Uncle Tom and his wife and boys.  And of course, it was a special treat if it was our Aunt Betty Lou and Uncle Rex with their two tow headed kids.    Uncle Earl and his wife, Aunt Betty, with their kids came from time to time, and Uncle Bruce and Aunt Ann came about as much. And then there was our Auntie Irene and her brood!  Oh how we loved all the cousins!

Or, it might be our Paw Paw Burrus driving his team of horses up the road, pulling the big old wagon that would carry us all down the little dirt road to the spring house below the hill to fill our water cans for the week.

It didn’t really matter who it was, the popping of the tires was a sure signal that somebody was coming.

As I think back on those days, and I think about the situation our world is in at this time, I am reminded that there is somebody else who is coming.  Someone we should be waiting anxiously to see. . .

We are taught in the Word of God to be watching and waiting. . . for the Son of God to return in the clouds of glory!

Sometimes, I get so excited thinking about that day ~ which will come at just that right time.  And while I know there will not be a popping of rocks against the tires; there will be no running to the house to pick up the toys and dirty dishes, I just know there will be a feeling of electricity in the air, a moment of expectation fulfilled!

It is so exciting to contemplate that at times, I can hardly wait!

I hope you, too, are watching, and listening for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ!  I hope we meet together, as we rise to meet Him in the air!

What a wonderful time that will be. . .

I Thessalonians 4:16 – 18

¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words.