The urgency of the message and of the moment drifted across my thoughts and settled in my heart when I realized earlier today what day this is.
It's Sunday as I write this. One year ago today, on a Sunday, I stood before a group of residents at the 55+ community where I preach each week. Mom sat where she always sat: Front row of folding chairs. First one on the aisle to my right. My text that day was from the first two verses of Romans 12: Present your bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice. Don’t be molded into the attitudes of the culture, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
I didn’t know -- I could not know -- on that Sunday one year ago today that on the following Sunday, I’d be preaching Mom’s funeral.
That is why, as I remembered Mom’s sudden and unexpected death, the urgency of the message I was about to preach today from Ephesians 6 – placing on our feet shoes that bring good news that any of us can be reconciled to God – the urgency of that message became a bit more insistent for me.
No one knows where any of us will be a week from today.
When the managers of the community where mom lived called me that Wednesday night, I knew – even in my nearly inconsolable grief – I knew where my mom was. She’d been following Jesus for better than three decades by then. She was with her Savior.
Yes, the message of reconciliation with God is an urgent message. It is a pressing message. I hope everyone who reads this will consider it carefully.
As God reminded me a year ago today, no one knows where any of us will be – even tomorrow.
2 comments:
God's blessings on you and yours as you approach your mother's first anniversary in heaven. And thanks for the reminder. Things can change in an instant and our call is an urgent one.
Thanks, Kevin.
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