52). Then this mortal will put on immortality.
It will be that "clothed upon" of which the apostle wrote to the
Corinthians: "For in this tabernacle we groan, being burdened; not for
that we would be unclothed (death) but clothed upon, that mortality
might be swallowed up of life" (2 Cor. v:4). Then our body of
humiliation will be fashioned like unto His own glorious body. It is
the blessed, glorious hope, not death and the grave, but the coming of
the Lord, when we shall be changed. And it is our imminent hope;
believers must wait daily for it and some blessed day the shout will
surely come.

When He descends from heaven with the shout and the dead in Christ are
raised and we are changed, then "we shall be caught up together with
them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air." It will be the blessed
time of reunion with the loved ones who have gone before. What joy and
comfort it must have brought to the sorrowing Thessalonians when they
read these blessed words for the first time! And they are still the
words of comfort and hope to all His people, when they stand at the
open graves of loved ones who fell asleep as believers. Often the
question is asked, "Shall we not alone meet our loved ones but also
recognize them?" Here is the answer: "Together with them" implies both
reunion and recognition. These words would indeed mean nothing did
they not mean recognition. We shall surely see the faces of our loved
ones again and all the saints of God on that blessed day when this
great event takes place. The clouds will be heaven's chariots to take
the heirs of God and the joint-heirs of the Lord Jesus Christ into His
own presence. As He ascended so His redeemed ones will be taken up.
Caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; all laws of
gravitation are set aside, for it is the power of God, the same power
which raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead and seated Him in glory,
which will be displayed in behalf of His saints (Eph. i:19-23). Surely
this is a divine and a wonderful revelation. "How foolish it must
sound to our learned scientists. But, beloved, I would want nothing
but that one sentence, 'Caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the
air,' to prove the divinity of Christianity. Its very boldness is
assurance of its truth. No speculation, no argument, no reasoning; but
a bare authoritative statement startling in its boldness. Not a
syllable of Scripture on which to build, and yet when spoken,