How often have we heard, “I didn’t know that was the last time I would ever see my loved one again. If only I had known, I would have hugged him/her a little longer.”
Heartbreaking.
But does it change our own attitudes towards those we love? Do we get so caught up in day-to-day living that we forget that there is a last time for everything?
The last time we will kiss our spouse goodbye.
The last time we eat dinner with some good friends.
The last time we tuck our children into bed.
I am guilty of this. I assume that if I have greeted my granddaughter each morning this week, I will be greeting her each morning next week, and even for years to come. I live as though I will see the end coming well in advance, such as when she goes off to college or gets a job in another state. But often I give little thought that the hug I gave her this morning might have been the last. Accidents happen. Life circumstances change. We don’t have near as much control over our lives as we sometimes think we do. If only someone could tell us when the end was coming, like a GPS app identifies the last mile of a journey.
Well, Jesus did do that concerning our last days on earth. He gave us signs to look for and directions on what to do and not do. He also said that it would be like in the days of Noah. Back then, people were eating, drinking, and marrying up until it started raining. Same with Sodom. People were carrying on their lives up until the fire began falling.
I know that people have been saying Jesus was returning soon for thousands of years. Many years ago, when I was a new Christian, I believed, like many new Christians, that Jesus was coming any day. My life revolved around Him. Everything else took second stage. Then decades went by and His return, as much as I still yearned for it, became second stage and the daily concerns of life became more important.
But one day, He is coming back. And although we don’t know the day, we can know the season. Based on the signs He gave us, are we living in that season today? Many of the things He said would happen have happened over the centuries, and it’s possible they will continue to happen for centuries more. But eventually labor pains will end. Their intensity and frequency are clues as to how close that end is. Disaster upon disaster is happening all across the globe, so many and so often, that they no longer consume our attention like they once did. Just like school or mass shootings, the first ones were top news for days, now most don’t even make the news. Words like “record breaking” and “never seen before” are being used with increasingly frequency. Threats of destroying the world have gone from “what if” like I heard when I was younger to a real possibility today. And in some views, a probability.
What if we really are living in the last of the last days? How would our attitude be different? What changes would we make in our lives?
Do we need to hear the trumpet sound in the sky before we make those changes? Wouldn’t today be a good day to live as if it was our last?
Because one day, it will be.
Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Isaiah 55:6
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” Isaiah 46:10
He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You now how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time? Luke 12:54-56
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the day of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buy and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. Luke 17:26-30
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things (see Matt 24:4-31) have happened. Matthew 24:32-34
Either momentary regret passing up something delightful to my senses, or lasting regret living with the effect it has in my body. I’d love to say I had the discipline and maturity to choose the latter each time, but I don’t. There’s a battle between my inner child and my inner adult, and it’s evident when you look at my body, that my inner adult doesn’t always win.
Amazing God Stories 