“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” (Matt 25:13 NKJV)
My husband’s voice sounded strained over the speaker of my cell phone: “We need to live every day as if it’s the last one before we leave for Europe.”
I knew what he was talking about. Just that morning we had spoken to the nurses at the home where my mother-in-law lives. “It’s not good,” was the unwelcome comment of the charge nurse. “She has bronchitis, without a fever, and she doesn’t have any reserves left!” When my husband later tried to talk to her on the phone, her voice was weak and raspy, her breathing shallow and noisy, and she couldn’t respond to him coherently. We both knew what this meant: She wasn’t expected to live through this infection.
Ever since we were fortunate enough to spend 10 beautiful days with her last summer, her health had been on a roller coaster. Praise be to God, each time her health went down, it had bounced back again. The only problem was, her health never bounced back to the level it had been before. Would she make it through this particular infection? Only God knew. But my husband’s advice was good: We needed to be ready at any moment to drop everything for an emergency flight to Europe.
This statement should have induced stress in me, but honestly, it didn’t. In fact, it brought about a sense of relief. It seemed to give me permission to let my number one priority be my mother-in-law.
As I thought about all of this, a Bible story came to mind: The story of 10 ladies who were bridesmaids at a wedding.
You can find the story recorded in Matthew 25. These ladies all awaited the arrival of the bridegroom, and all 10 of them grew weary from the wait and went to sleep. When the shout sounded that the bridegroom was finally on his way, all of their lamps had gone out, and only 5 of those 10 ladies had reserve oil for their lamps.
These “foolish” five ladies went out to try to buy some more oil, but while they were gone, the bridegroom came, went in to the wedding feast, and shut the door behind him. When the five oil-seeking ladies returned with their lamps once again brightly lit, the door was shut: “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.” (Matt 25:12 NKJV)
That is when Jesus makes the famous wise statement: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” (Matt 25:13 NKJV)
So what does this story have to do with my mother-in-law?
Just this: We do not know what day or hour will be her last on this earth, all we know is that as soon as we hear the word, we will drop everything and fly to Europe. We are ready. We know which airline has the best rates and flights, we know how to get a last minute ride on the airbus to the airport, we have a plan for caring for our animals, our home, our son, and we have our passports out and dusted off, ready for a quick departure.
And believe me, it’s a huge burden off of our shoulders to live this way!
Jesus tells us that this is how we should live every day, always expecting His return at any time. As the signs of the times become more and more numerous and frequent, it is important for each of us to examine our lives. Are we living as if this is our last day on Earth? If not, then perhaps we don’t have our priorities in the right places!
Is it for no reason that Jesus tells us to stay alert? To watch attentively?
And could it be possible that living like this might even reduce the stresses we have in life?
Friends, are YOU living each day as if it were your last? If not, why not spend some time with Jesus? Let Him set your priorities in order!
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries.