"Dad's coming" gives hope or dread depending on the type of day you've had, doesn't it? If you have been frustrated trying to get something to work, hearing "Dad's coming" is hope. If you've been misbehaving, "Dad's coming" is a dread. It doesn't matter when in the day this is said, hearing those words will have their intended effect immediately. I remember getting a lego robot set one year and I had put almost all of it together, however, I thought I had turned the page on the manual only to discover I had built, after a day's frustration, two left legs. And now it was time for bed. But Dad was coming home. I woke up the next day to find my lego robot—standing—on the kitchen table. All was set right.

Now, most of us have much bigger problems than a lego robot with two left legs (although, kids, I do still see how this as a big problem for your worlds, so blessed are you), so do the recipients of this letter. However, the letter is invoking a much more powerful Being than my dad. James is telling us that the Lord, Jesus Himself, is on the way.