A large steel factory in Hamilton, Ontario, bought truck-loads of scrap metal to melt down in their furnaces. Among the larger pieces of scrap was mixed a quantity of fine steel turnings which, when put into the smelter, were so light that the blast of hot air carried them right up the chimney and they fell in a pile on the ground outside.
For a time it did not seem worthwhile to bother with them, but soon the pile grew so large it was in the way. Then it was taken away by truckloads to another furnace to melt down. The work progressed well until they came to the bottom of the pile, and there the fine bits of steel were so mixed with the mud that it was difficult to gather them up.
The first attempt to solve this problem was to have the workmen put them in pails; but this was so slow and they gathered so much mud as well that the idea was dismissed as impracticable. The next suggestion was to bring a large powerful magnet and, suspending it from a crane, move it slowly over the ground in question. This was done, and in an instant, as if by magic, those steel turnings which were so imbedded in the mud as to be unnoticed by the casual observer separated themselves from the miry clay and sprang up into the air to meet the magnet as it passed slowly by.
A Christian who was watching remarked to another beside him: "And that is just what will happen when the Lord Jesus comes for His own. He knows all hearts, and everyone who is truly His will respond to His drawing power just as the steel turnings did to the magnet, and will be gathered to meet Him in the air.”
And how about you, dear reader? Are you ready for the Lord to come? Have you the kind of life—God's life—that will answer to His shout when "they that are Christ's" rise to meet Him in the air?
To have this life you must be a child of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Acknowledge yourself a sinner in God's sight, for He tells us in His Word, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:23. Then through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ when He died on Calvary's cross, God can and will cleanse you from your sins. Oh, come to Him now, confessing your sin and guiltiness! You will not be turned away, for John 6:37 tells us: "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”
Then when the Lord does come—(and it may be today, for He says, "Surely I come quickly," Rev. 22:20)—you too will hear that shout, and with all His own you will be "caught up" to "meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:17.