Just why God chose me, I was not sure.

The Bible clearly says that no one will know the hour or the day of the Second Coming of Christ. Not even the angels in heaven will know.

Why then, did I think that God had let me in on His great secret?

We were stiff-necked Methodist, as Mama said. Our preachers didn’t have much to say about the Second Coming but Aunt Nita was a Holiness preacher and she had a whole lot to say on the subject. So, I guess she’s the one who put the notion in my head that Jesus was coming back on that particular Easter Sunday.

That was a big secret for big-eyed, 10-year-old with an imagination as big as all out doors to keep. But I didn’t think I ought to run around telling folks, especially if the angels didn’t even know about it.

I was scared and unhappy, too, about the end of time coming.

I imagined how it would be. The Trumpet of the Lord would sound and Jesus would come down and get us and take us up to heaven.

But I wasn’t too interested in mansions and streets of gold. I liked playing in the hayloft in the barn behind Eunice’s house and making frog houses in the damp dirt after a rain.

I’d probably have to sit still and quiet in a mansion and couldn’t slide down the banisters like I did at my grandma’s house. Going barefooted on streets made out of gold would hurt my feet. I just wasn’t sure about this heaven that I was going to on Easter Sunday.

I had it in my mind that, as soon as the sun came up on Easter morning, Jesus would appear and I’d see him right out my bedroom window.

Every Sunday of my life, I got a whipping because I’d pitch a fit when I had to put on my new Sunday dress and my new white patent leather shoes with lacy socks and a hat and gloves. I looked like a clown.

But on this Easter eve, I didn’t even pout when Mama hung my starched, ironed Easter dress on the back on my bedroom door. I knew I wouldn’t be wearing that thing. The end of time was coming and I was going in my blue shorts and plaid shirt and my tennis shoes with a hole in the toe.

I couldn’t eat supper that night. I was too scared.

I put on my pajamas but, when all the house was quiet and dark, I got up and put on my “going away” outfit and crawled back under the covers with my Teddy bear, Tim, wrapped in my arms. I kept my eyes fixed on the window facing east. I had to be awake for the sunrise and the Second Coming.

Mama’s singing in the kitchen woke me. I jumped out of bed and ran to the window. The cows were grazing in the pasture. The birds were singing and the sun was climbing in the sky. I could smell bacon frying. It was Easter morning and the end of time had not come.

Later, I took my Easter dress off the door and put it on and my new shoes and socks. I stuck the hat on my head and pulled on the white gloves.

It was Easter morning and a new day had dawned.

Heaven would wait.