Quite a Change
AM Psalm 25 • PM Psalm 9, 15
Isa. 5:8-12,18-23 • 1 Thess. 5:1-11 • Luke 21:20-28
A human being living a life experiences change. Everyday, all the time, life changes. Sometimes life feels like it’s on repeat but it’s always brand new and different every single day. We’re a part of it all. We begin, exist for a bit and experience lots of other things that begin, exist and then end… and then we end. Change.
We’re all in the ‘existing for a bit’ part. I know not everyone agrees with me on this but I find this part to be very nice. I like existing very much– it’s not perfect, but it has some really wonderful qualities I enjoy.So when Jesus talks about the End of the World and his arrival in the clouds, I don’t get as excited as some folks do.
Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
Luke 21:27-28
I honestly don’t know what “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” even means. I’m certain it’s not a literal description. I do like the encouragement Jesus gives about standing up and raising our heads. I really like the way St. Paul puts it at the end of his letter to the folks in Thessalonica calling them “children of light and children of the day” writing:
…let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake…since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
1 Thessalonians 5:6-8
And I really like this part:
For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.
1 Thessalonians 5:10
Perhaps those who are awake and looking up and those who are sleeping through this life will experience the End of the World together and it won’t be about anger and punishment. The End will be about living with God, experiencing Life in a different way.
It will be quite a change.
Written by Troy Schremmer
Troy, who lives in Fayetteville with his wife Jonny and their son Huck, works with preschool age children as an enrichment teacher in music and movement. He also sings songs at our public library and volunteers as a teacher-helper in Children’s Sunday School.