by Rev Don Schatz
Wrapped in Faith Ahead of Time
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.
“But you, brothers, are not in darkness, so that this day should surprise you like a thief.”
I Thessalonians 5:4
My wife took this picture of me recently. Any woman will recognize the machine in the foreground. I had suddenly been confronted with the reality of having a mammogram! Not a lot of men get to experience that. Truthfully, I would have been happy to remain among their number. My wife was somewhat gleeful underneath her concern for my health! That’s okay. It was fair.
“This day” of Thessalonians is not just about the last day, the end times. At least, not as though they are far distant. We live in the end times. Today is the last day. I just forget that. Suddenly, surprise, a weird health concern had me in a very unfamiliar setting, forced now to consider the ‘this day’ of Thessalonians.
I was distracting myself after the test, by reading emails on my phone, waiting to be called across the hall to learn the results. As I write about it now, I wonder why I did not busy myself with what I was doing before leaving home for the test, reading the Psalms. They always bring me peace. Always. The Word of the Lord has a way of doing that. It makes sense, after all. The Word of the Lord, in the Scriptures, delivers one to the peace of the Word of the Lord in the person of Jesus, Prince of Peace.
For years, I have walked alongside people who received frightening, even life threatening news. Though my ‘news’ turned out to be good news, it is not always so. Among other things, this experience makes me more determined to be in the Word. To know Peace. To be a bringer of the Word in the lives of others. To be a bringer of the peace that is the presence of Jesus. To live Paul’s “this day”, today! Not to wait to live it another day.
This kind of living binds one more closely to Christ. The only Peace that persists.
Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO
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