Matthew 24:36-44
Unexceptional.
Like in the days of Noah… people were marrying…
people were eating… then came the rain.
And so it will be once again.
People will be working, people will be preparing food. Everybody will be getting ready for the Sunday evening game, the lawnmower will be heard outside,
children will be playing in the street... then some will be - gone. Just gone.
Jesus doesn’t speak about stopping this. He doesn’t speak about people doing things out of the ordinary. This change, this time of reckoning and transformation happens while life is happening as it has for thousands of years. Nothing will be different, then everything will be different. This coming of the Son of Man will be an event that will upend our understanding of ALL THINGS, but the very moment before that - somebody will complete their word in Scrabble.
Exceptional to Extraordinary in the blink of an eye.
It’s the time of the Census.
People were walking, people were talking, and then there was a birth…
but hardly anyone noticed.
But the second time, the second arrival will NOT go unnoticed. Shall we live in fear or anticipation of this second coming? When I read these words I don’t see fear and fire…I see a quilt, and beautiful patches, and everything as it should be.
But the Son of Man tears the patches apart, threads snap and now… now chaos.
The fabric is torn.
But the Son of Man won’t leave it there. To do so would be an abomination. Not creation.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words…
Now the THREE gather the patches again in a new way and makes a new quilt, a new creation…
oh these words will never pass away.
~ Alec Miller