The Trumpet of Jesus

I think the year was 1983, and I was on the way to my job at Dayton's in Edina, Minnesota. My brother handed me a cassette tape to play on my way to work, with a short comment that was something like, "This is really cool."

If my memory serves me, the first song on that tape by the Christian group The Imperials filled my baby blue Dodge Magnum with these words:

I listen to the Trumpet of Jesus
While the world hears a different sound
I march to the drumbeat of God Almighty
While the others just wander around
I'm a member of the Holy Ghost traveling band
We're moving on up to a better land
I hear the voice of a Supernatural Singer
Like only those who know Him can

Not only had I never heard contemporary Christian music in my life, but as freshman in college, I can honestly say I had never given much thought to the return of Christ. So here was this cool, new music with Russ Taff's throaty voice singing about listening to and for the trumpet call of God and "moving on up" to be with the Savior.

WOW. For this teenager, raised in the church, this was revolutionary stuff. (Not to mention the wild notion of the Holy Ghost traveling band!) My heart and mind went to places it had never been, but it is the same familiar place I return to when I read 1 Thessalonians 4:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

Fast forward to the early 1990's. I was a young professional woman on a business trip to Chicago. Sitting in a fancy restaurant on Michigan Avenue, a co-worker asked me how I knew that David Koresh, who was at that point leading a group of cult followers in Texas, was not actually Jesus reincarnate, as some were claiming. I remembering smiling to myself, now KNOWING about the trumpet call and believers rising in the air to meet the Savior, and simply saying to her, "Oh, believe me, no one is going to miss it when Jesus comes again."

I look up sometimes. Do you? Do you see cloud patterns that make you wonder if they are actually the prelude to the trumpet call? I think about my dad, who I miss every single day, physically rising up out of his grave to meet with the Savior. And I pray for those I love that they will not be left standing on the ground while the atmospheric reunion is taking place before their very eyes.

Just like 1983, the thought of it is still overwhelming. Joy. Anticipation. Awe. And a renewed desire to "march to the drumbeat of God Almighty."