Luke 12:35-38 New International Version (NIV)
Watchfulness
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak."
When I worked for the City of Saint Petersburg, on vary rare occasions, usually with notification, the mayor would tour the various working locations throughout city government. I worked several miles from City Hall in the Leisure Services Complex. One day my boss, Mark, announced that the mayor was coming by for a visit sometime during the day. Mark specifically asked me to clean up my work area. Whereupon, I straighten things up, threw things out, put things in drawers, and dusted all round. The mayor never showed up; and I ventured to Mark the opinion that he had fabricated the mayor's expectant visit so that I would have to straighten up my desk. Perhaps it's easy to overemphasize the importance of such preparations. But, on the other hand, what if the mayor had stopped by for a visit and we were all lounging back reading newspapers with our feet propped up on our desks? It would be difficult for the mayor not to remember this during budget crunch time.
It is interesting to note how human behavior is modified by the knowledge that a third party is watching. In fact, this is no doubt a principal reason why God has ordained a multiplicity of institutions (such as government, the private sector, families, the free press, and the church.)
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