So, on this last day of February, we experienced three earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 3.6 to 4.7, felt throughout the state of Arkansas. If one backs up to the beginning of the year, we started 2011 with dead birds falling out of the sky, followed shortly by dead fish washing up on the shore of a Southwest Arkansas river. Over the last six weeks, we've seen unprecedented ice storms, beautiful days of 75 degrees, followed by parts of the state seeing up to two feet of snow drop in less than twenty-four hours. And then there were the earthquakes, which last night coincided with tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms.
Add to that the current unrest in the Middle East. And the political turmoil over budgets here in America. And the growing awareness of our fellow Christians who are persecuted for their faith. And any of your own personal trials. Mine are equally mundane and terrifying.
So what are we supposed to think about these occurrences?
Not much, frankly. I think a lot of people would look at a passage like Matthew 24:6-8 and begin to worry if this is the end of times. And maybe this is it. But remember two things. First, Jesus himself says that no man knows the time of his return, only the Father in heaven. So even if we see things that concern us about "the end", they should encourage us to be bold in the gospel, to check our hearts and our relationship with the Lord, and to look to his goodness rather than the world that is seemingly falling apart around us. What do we, who are to be found in Jesus, have to be afraid of? Remember the gospel, my friends! What will Jesus say to his own, but to welcome them into their rest?
But secondly, it struck me today as I was walking across campus that the reason the idea of being in the presence of Jesus scares me is that I don't know what it means to be with him. He is still other than me, I still have my sinful nature and the idea of being with Jesus, in the presence of God the Father, is foreign. Yet... there will be restoration and a full relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Do I really have anything on this earth that is better or more important than that? Oh, wonderful things and beautiful things that I am thankful for... and my theology teaches me that because the earth is to be restored, I'm not losing the creation in eternity, but experiencing it anew... if I don't get married in this life, I will the Lord's Bride for eternity. If I don't get to do the work I want right now, I will delight in the work he gives me in the new Earth. If I can't see the point of anything right now, I believe that in eternity we will hear the greatest of all stories... the story of how God has redeemed his people.
Remember, too, that since the fall, this is what all of history has been moving towards: Jesus Christ's return as the King of all Creation. We shouldn't be afraid of this, but heartily pray for it!
Okay, wait a minute though. Pray for the Lord's return. Delight in the idea of eternity with Jesus. And do your work. Love the people around you, attend to their very real needs, hurts, and problems. Live today as if there were a tomorrow. If we run off to the hills, if we are so heavenly minded that we're of no earthly good, then we've got it mixed up. The way things are right now, that's not how they should be. So as we live, we need to push back against the broken and jagged edges of the fall, bringing what restoration the Lord has granted us to bring to our friends, family and community. There is no doubt about that; the work we do today is of eternal value. But it should always point us back to what is yet to come.
Looking at the rest of Matthew 24, we see that the Lord warns us to be watchful, to not be so caught up in today that we forget about eternity. Like so much of the rest of the Christian life, we have to live in the tension of having redemption, but not having the fullness of it as we wait for Glory. We experience the painful longing of waiting, but we have good gifts in the here and now. The chaos and suffering around us should, instead of making us scared or nervous, remind us of what is yet to come, putting our heads in the right place. Live and watch. Live and Watch.
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