“I never saw it
coming.” I suspect that you have said
that phrase before or heard it said before.
You never saw it coming that a friend died that day… or that you lost
your job or the company was closing… or some other experience that was sudden
and shocking. There are many things in
life that are predictable- that a
couple we know that has been dating or been together for years finally decides
to get married…. or that in a few weeks the trees and bushes will begin to bud
or flower. We expect those
things. But then again, there come
those things in life that we do know are coming.
There are some global
events that folks did not see coming.
My Dad would tell the story about that Sunday afternoon when he and his
parents heard the news about the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. My Dad was still a boy in those days, and
even his adult parents did not see that coming. I still remember that Tuesday morning when
I heard the news about planes flying into the twin towers of the World Trade
Center in New York City and a plane doing the same at the Pentagon in suburban
Washington DC. I did not see it coming, nor did any of the
people in those buildings on that September day.
There are some things in our faith as Christians we will not see coming. That is a part of what Jesus gets at in the words of Matthew 24: 36-37 where we read:
36 “No one knows when that day and hour will come[a]—neither the heavenly angels nor the Son,[b] but only the Father, 37 because just as it
was in Noah’s time, so it will be when the Son of Man comes.
We know that
God came. Why, God came in a form that
took all humanity by surprise- as a tiny
baby born to a teenage peasant girl named Mary. We spent days celebrate that coming just
weeks ago. We also know that God will
come again. Generations of Christians
facing trial and trouble have found solace in that thought and hope. The apostle Paul even thought that Christ
would come again during his lifetime. But
we do not know when though through the years some folks have claimed they had a
special knowledge about that.
There are
some things in life we do know when.
When a baby is born through natural means, we do not when that time will be. On this winter February day, we know not when it will be a snow day or a sunny
day. We do not know. So, we live like soldiers waiting for their
orders to come down. We work for the
Master, and we stand ready for the hour when Christ will come again or call us
home to heaven. Come, Lord Jesus! Have a good day.- Pastor Randy Wall
PRAYER
-- O God, who has come and is coming: we wait with expectation for the day you
shall return and take us home. Help us
live each day with hope in you and in eagerness to serve you; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
