Yard Shoes and the Rapture
We’d been washing fresh, bright red summer tomatoes in the sink, and I thought she’d gone to the table to get some more tomatoes. I called her name and when she didn’t answer, I turned around. She wasn’t there. I saw her yard shoes sitting in the floor. After calling several more times, I felt my adrenaline rising. I looked in the yard and the house. I still didn’t see Mom, and I didn’t hear her leave. Then I began to wonder, did she go in the rapture?
When mom finally came back in from the shed, I shared my moment of panic with her. I was young, but old enough to have heard and understood the sermons about those working side by side grinding wheat, one taken and the other left behind (Matt 24:41). I knew that if she’d gone in the rapture, it was bad for me! I’d dedicated my life to the Lord several years before, but I still had that moment of panic. What did “being ready” really mean?
Though we have laughed about that moment for years since then, it was only a laughing matter after I knew I’d not been left behind. I know our Lord never meant for us to live in fear; He meant for us to live, but with the right preparations.
In Luke 19:11-14, Jesus uses a parable to explain to those who expected His return quickly by talking about a man who goes into a far country, leaving his servants behind to work. He admonishes them to “occupy until I come.” In other words, keep working and doing what you do, but be prepared for His return. Paraphrasing Luke 21:36, Jesus tells us to “always watch and pray so we can be worthy, escape the terrible things coming, and to be ready to stand before Him.”
Don’t be panicked or afraid about your future. Watch, pray, and be ready!
-TH-