When you do not expect it

I am on the church prayer chain, and recently I watched the unfolding of a sad situation made more tragic when a father on his way to visit his adult daughter in her terminal cancer stage fell down the stairs and died. This is the last thing anyone expected—our attention was focused on the daughter on her deathbed.

“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:40, ESV).

The man in Jesus’ parable had only one problem (so he thought), and all his thinking was channeled into that pleasant predicament: Where will I find space enough for next year’s bumper crop (Luke 12:16-21)? He was in error. Not only did he not see the next year, he did not see the next day. What removed him from the face of the earth with such terrifying swiftness? Maybe a heart attack, maybe a stroke. All we know is what God reveals:

“Fool! This night your soul is required of you …” (Luke 12:20, ESV).

The foolish man had said to himself:

“Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry” (Luke 12:19, ESV).

The assumption of “for many years” is what made that man a “fool” rather than a sympathetic character who died tragically young. The man should have known better. If not from Scripture, then from the newspapers and the neighborhood scuttlebutt (“Did you hear that Gladys passed away unexpectedly?”) God takes a person here and a person there, and it is a favor to the living, to remind them that He can come at any hour.

This is such a favor, in fact, that the psalmist prays for this mindset to abide in him so that he would maintain an eternal perspective on things:

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12, ESV).

The “wisdom” that comes with the awareness of immanence of death is the kind that is quick to forgive, that overlooks offenses, that prefers kingdom priorities to worldly priorities, and that keeps a loose grip on “things” because things don’t last. In other words, it liberates.

Someone got up this morning, showered, put his pants on one leg at a time, ate breakfast, checked his email, got into his car—and never made it through the intersection. Because “the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

A great stocking stuffer: Andrée Seu Peterson’s Won’t Let You Go Unless You Bless Me, regularly $12.95, is now available from WORLD for only $5.95.