A Rainbow World at the End

Maybe the world is ending. I took a nap, which never happens, and I was sick for a day which rarely happens.Next, my key wouldn't open or even go in the driver side door of the van, and a locksmith had to come and completely replace the lock which stopped working for no good reason.  This calamity, which has never happened to us before,  cost us money that unemployment makes increasingly scarce. Then later, the world was completely darkened for several hours when our entire area lost power last night over a relatively small storm. And then when power returned later than evening, my husband tried to turn the computer back on and a horrible screeching high pitched whine would wail. Finally he disconnected the battery back-up and printer, and the whine stopped.  I don't know how it could be any more obvious- the signs are all pointing to Armageddon.

The world ending raises mixed feelings in me. There is unfinished business I really was hoping to see. Will Matt get the great attorney job in Richmond, will Anders be home for Christmas and reach the point where hugging his mom is cool, will the newly cut down trebuchet toss projectiles as effectively as the old one, will my book go viral and become a bestseller, will Asherel finish her top secret art entry in time for the November contest deadline, will Arvo get the perfect job before our health insurance runs out, and then finally the big one, will all those beloved people I'm praying for open their hearts to the comfort and reality of the Risen Christ?

The end of the world is not without perks, hence my ambivalent feelings. Instead of just guessing about the nature of God, I will see Him face to face.   The streets of heaven will be paved in jewels, and I imagine will cast rainbow colors on the entire place. All those who died before me, including my beloved cat Friskey, will be there waiting for me. I can't wait to ask that dear cat why he ran away from a 9 year old whose world revolved around him. But the best part: no more crying, no more sighing, no more dying. Heaven sounds heavenly.

But if the Bible is true, and I believe it is, then you have to want to go there, and you have to believe in its Landlord. And you have to decide before the world ends. If I nap again today, I suspect you have less than 24 hours to make a decision as I can't remember ever ever napping two days in a row. For your sake, I will try desperately to stay awake.

Matthew 25: 11-13
¹¹ “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’    ¹² “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
   ¹³ “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

His Feet in the Clouds

I can tell when a thunderstorm is coming through the most finely tuned weather forecasting device known to humankind- a neurotic dog. Hours, sometimes days, before the storm hits, Lucky begins pacing. He cringes and runs out the dog door and then races back inside. He prowls about as though the roof were about to fall on him.

In the recent boomer of a storm, even Honeybun who is a very calm dog sat with upright perked ears looking apprehensively at the door. She glanced at me and when I assured her it was ok, she lay down. Lucky, on the other hand, assured that it was ok, called me a liar, and went to cower in the bathroom. When a huge thunderbolt crashed across the street, he raced out of the corner and leaped onto my lap. As I am sure I have mentioned before, Lucky is not a lapdog sized dog. However, I allowed him to shudder in my lap for the brief few seconds he thought I could still the storm, and when I proved incapable of this feat, he dashed off to go find someone who could.

Fortunately, most storms pass quickly and Lucky returns to mere nutty instead of full blown psychotic. I love the storm passing. Quite often the sun breaks through dark, frightening clouds with gossamer rays of light that fan out like a dove tail. It always always makes me think of God reaching gently down to us, reminding us He is in the storm, but He is in the aftermath too.

Nahum 1:3 (New International Version)

³ The LORD is slow to anger and great in power;
the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet.