I was thinking of the Rapture believers this morning. Imagining their fear, their anticipation, their hope, and now the shock and disappointment that there is no Rapture today.
Where do you go from there?
You believe the world as you know it is going to stop. You hope in the deepest roots of your soul that you have been a good follower of Jesus, and you worked hard to be worthy to ascend to Heaven...
and...
nothing happens.
What to do?
Come down off of the mountain? Go back to work? Open up a checking account? Get on with your life?
Maybe these are the questions that besieged Jesus' first followers; His apostles and all those who worked with Him. The disciples believed that Jesus was coming back in their life time. He did in Spirit, but not from the sky arriving in glorious proclamation for the day of judgement.
So, Jesus did not come back then. His apostles desperately taught everyone to be prepared.
Were they mistaken?
No, I think not.
Jesus wanted us to live each day as if it were our last.
Thank about that.
If you knew you were going to die tonight would you be wasting your time right now? Would you withhold your forgiveness to those who have hurt you? Would you delay in making right the wrongs you have done? Would you skip over telling someone "I love you"? Would you avoid a hug? Miss the sweet song of a bird? Worry about your car, your house? Your possessions?
No.
You would be acutely aware of every moment, every breath, every sight, scent, taste, sound and every one who loves you and whom you love.
That is what Jesus asked us to do.
My son recently asked me about the end of the world. He was worried about that.
I looked at him and told him the truth. Every day somewhere, someplace the world has ended for someone. This conversation took place during the catastrophic earthquakes and tsunami in Japan (March 2011). I told my son that for all of the victims of that disaster, the world as they have known it has ended.
Nothing will be the same for them again. The survivors will use that ending to choose to mourn for the rest of their lives or to grieve as they must, but then begin again. They can choose to live in fear or they can choose to be strong and embrace the lessons of compassion that are borne out of such profound suffering.
Then I told him that the world as our little family knows it will end. Some day God will call one of us home first. And we will grieve and heal and step forward,.. continuing to learn that we all must strive to live each day in awareness, in gratitude... in humility, because we never will truly know which day will be the last.
