A Lifetime Ago
Do you remember where you were and what you were doing just a little over six months ago today? Do you recall Christmas morning 2019? What about New Year’s Eve just before welcoming in 2020? In light of current events, it is hard to believe that it was only a little over six months ago that we were engulfed in those particular activities. To some it must seem as if that were a lifetime ago.
All things will change and in a blink of an eye.
Still harder yet to believe would have been the thought back then, that within the next few months, everything we were so engulfed and involved in – almost all that we call “life” in general – both could, and would, be so swiftly and suddenly taken from us! So many of those things that we just simply took for granted would go on forever – from attending school, to going to work, to being involved in various sporting activities, as well as to attending weddings, funerals, church services, and graduation ceremonies – have all now ground to a very abrupt, complete, and all-encompassing halt. No one could have seen this coming, and certainly no one, even if they had, could have ever imagined the size and scope of the shutdown we are now experiencing. Even our government was taken totally off guard, finding themselves completely unprepared for the massive social, medical, financial and economic fallout this crisis would cause; and that, despite the several weeks of warning they had at the beginning as China so desperately struggled to come to grips with it.
And yet, as impossible as all of this was for any of us to imagine beforehand, here we are. What is infinitely far scarier still however, is the fact that the Bible very clearly promises us that there is another event coming that so dwarfs the deadly losses and catastrophic effects of the Coronavirus, that it defies every fiber of our ability to even begin to comprehend (2 Ptr. 3:10; Rev. 20:10-15). Unlike the Coronavirus though, this world-wide event will come upon all of us instantly and without warning; striking like a “thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2); occuring in the blink of an eye (1 Cor. 15:51-52). No one will even have time to think about turning their heart toward proper preparation at that time, for in the time it just took you to blink, it will all happen and be done with.
The incredibly beautiful silver lining to that mushroom cloud of mass destruction though, is that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as He sat on a mountainside with His disciples almost 2,000 years ago (Matt. 24:3), began to warn us to get ready for it’s coming (Matt. 24:42-25:46); a message which His faithful messengers would soon thereafter began to echo and call out as well (John 12:48-50; Acts 17:30-31; 2 Thess. 1:7-10; 2 Ptr. 3:1-18).
Oh my beloved brethren… what a wonderful blessing it is to know that one is prepared. To know that one is prepared, according to God’s word; because they love Him so much that they have completely devoted themselves to learning and obeying His holy word (Jn. 14:21-24; Acts 2:38-42; 2 Ptr. 1:2-21) so that they may know that they have eternal life (See: 1 Jn. 5:13).
For those who are not thus prepared however, the depth of the eternal tragedy they will suffer because of not being ready will be truly beyond anything one could ever possibly imagine. Today, if you know anyone at all who does not know Jesus, do not let the day pass without telling them how important it is that they get prepared while there’s still time. Because unlike the Coronavirus, when this hits, there will be no time to even blink!