“The end of all things is at hand therefore… above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (Read all of 1 Pet. 4:7–10)
Dear Jesus, may Peter’s words sink and settle deep in our hearts. “The end of all things is at hand.” He’s obviously talking about the nearness of your return, But what if we also applied this to the brevity of our lives before your return? What if we really believed your return, or our death, might happen before this coming Thanksgiving or Christmas? How would it impact our relationships—the easy ones, the fractured one, the most broken ones?
Whenever I attend or officiate a funeral or memorial service (which I will do on this September Saturday), I always leave with a renewed sense of my mortality and the fragility of life. I hug loved ones a little tighter, and linger a little longer in conversations. I make a few overdue calls to friends, and overlook things that seemed to justify my resentment and distance from others. But then it’s “back to normal.”
Busyness replaces good conversation and heart-connection. Little grievances again seem bigger than they really are. The “cult of preparation” takes over—one day I’ll have enough money saved to take that trip with friends, relax without worry or hurry, be present without distractions. That day seldom arrives. It’s a myth.
How many times do we need to hear it, Jesus? “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love’ (Gal. 5:6). Without the Gospel we have no love; and without love we are nothing. Jesus, you love us so earnestly and deeply. You haven’t just covered our sins; you have clothed us in your righteousness and exhausted our judgment. Whether you return in the next 15 minutes or in 1500 hundred years; whether we die today or outlive our grandchildren, may we love others as you love us right now. So Very Amen.