The Second Coming

Melanie Jacobs is deep in arithmetic. She adds up the generations between Adam and Jesus from the genealogies in Matthew and Luke, divides by forty, adds twelve, folds in the years since Israel became a nation in 1948, and divides the whole thing by three. Her sister Robyn, trying to talk to her, finally snatches away the paperback Melanie has been working from - a book about the Second Coming by a television preacher whose program a friend's family watches all the time. Melanie says the book tells exactly when Jesus is coming back, and that the answer is on page 27. Robyn asks. The answer is Saturday.

Robyn thinks the whole idea is bonkers. Nobody knows when Jesus is returning, she insists, because Jesus said so in the Bible - somewhere. Melanie is unmoved. If her parents believe Jesus is coming, and Robyn believes it too, then why couldn't it be Saturday? And if it is Saturday, she has a great deal of work to do before then. She borrows the masking tape from the kitchen drawer, tells her startled mother she is going out to hang posters, and disappears out the door.

Ann Jacobs phones her husband at his office, and Dale goes hunting through town. At Whit's End he arrives out of breath, waving a poster he has peeled off a fence: a drawing of Jesus above the announcement that the great day is next Saturday. Whit has not seen Melanie, but he has seen this sort of thing before. Every couple of years, he tells Dale, somebody publishes a new book or floats a new idea about the date of the return, and people have been speculating that way ever since Jesus ascended into heaven. There is nothing about Saturday in his Bible. When the Jacobses hurry off to look for their daughter, Whit stays behind with the poster and says quietly that he wishes it were true.

Robyn, meanwhile, digs the ministry's toll-free prayer line out of the back of the book and calls it, determined to get to the bottom of things. All she reaches is a recorded voice that thanks her for calling and repeats the same one-word answer - Saturday - before hanging up on her twice.

Melanie comes home to find her family holding her posters. Dale sits her down and tries gently to explain that the Bible teaches nobody knows the day. Melanie counters that if nobody knows, then nobody knows it will not be Saturday either, and besides, her parents have not read the book or worked the formula. She did. All you need, she says, is faith. That night Dale admits to Ann that he could not tell his daughter beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is wrong, and that the last thing he wants to do is damage a faith so sincere. They decide to wait and be there to pick up the pieces on Sunday morning. In her room, Melanie prays, asking Jesus whether living forever ever gets boring, telling him everyone misses him, and promising to wait for him in the backyard.

By Saturday, Melanie has pitched a tent out back and spent the entire day in it with her Bible and her Sunday school certificate beside her pillow, ready to show them to him. Robyn, meeting Whit in town, reports that her sister is more excited than she gets at Christmas, and complains that she is stuck babysitting a sister who thinks the world is ending. Whit surprises her by refusing to be hard on Melanie. He once thought he had the Second Coming figured out too, and he was wrong - but the experience helped him make a decision. Jesus himself said that no one, not even the angels, knows the day; only the Father. And Jesus said something just as important: keep watch and be ready. So Whit decided to live every day as though it were the day of the return, making the most of every minute and working to glorify God in everything he does. When Robyn shrugs that she just hopes there is something good on television, Whit answers sadly that her words probably sum up how most people really feel about the Second Coming.

Dale and Ann leave for a newspaper banquet, uneasy about the daughter sitting alone in a tent, and Dale asks Robyn to be kind no matter how the night ends. At ten till ten, with two hours left, Melanie is still praying, still asking, admitting she will have a hard time explaining herself to everyone who read her posters. Then Robyn climbs into the tent with a warm sleeping bag and stays. She says she figured her sister might want some company. They talk about red carpets and reception committees, about getting overexcited and getting mature, and Melanie says she hopes she never stops being excited about Jesus, because it was better than anything she has ever felt. Robyn reminds her of something Whit says: it takes more than feelings to be a good Christian. And when Robyn asks what Melanie will do if Jesus does not come tonight, Melanie has already thought it through. She believed in him all this time without knowing when he was coming. There is no reason to stop now just because he did not arrive when she expected.

The banquet runs long, and it is after midnight when Dale and Ann come home and find both girls asleep in the tent. Melanie stirs, half hoping, and asks whether Jesus came back. Not tonight, her father tells her. Maybe tomorrow? It could be any minute, he says. Any minute. Melanie decides that is all right. She can wait - and her father, gathering her up to carry her inside, tells her that is exactly what he and her mother were praying she would say.