Thursday, December 6, 2007

Today's text

Matthew 24:36, 40

[Jesus said:] “But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father. … So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming.”

Prayer

What do I know for sure, Dear Friend? Not much, and little can I know, save your promise. All else I touch and know is temporal, changing, finite. Too soon it will pass away, all we know, our times and all we’ve touched with mind and hand.

I wish not to be morbid on a cold winter morning. The day is challenge enough, and a chilled soul offers no comfort when the air we breathe burns our lungs and bites our flesh.

We need a word of warmth, too, when times change: when people and places we have loved--and which have loved us--are carried on in that ever rolling stream, thinning the daily landscapes with which we have grown familiar. All our times end, and with an end a beginning, ready or not.

And here, Jesus, you tell me that I cannot know when this current will reach its destination and pour into the sea. Neither do you know. We know only your promise that there is an end to time when the Holy One will make justice and be mercy.

How? Who knows? But your promise stands firm amid our changing times and transitions. And a quiet comfort and calm humility floats through the heart’s chambers when we release our fevers into the assurance of your promise: “I will come to you,” you say. “I will come wherever you are and wherever you go. The master will not abandon the beloved.”

That is enough for us.

Come, Lord Jesus. May we stay awake to all your comings.

Pr. David L. Miller