Well, if you live in the Midwestern United States like I do, then the apocalypse is upon you. The sky is falling, the streets are empty, and the stores have had record sales on bread, milk, and eggs. I too visited the local grocery store Sunday evening to get the essentials for surviving the storm of the century, which is a bold statement to make considering that the we are only eleven years into this century.
For those of you that don't live in the Saint Louis metropolitan area, I will explain what happens before a snow storm. Some weather person on the radio or TV says the word snow. At that time, the city goes into a panic and descends upon the local grocery stores to stock up for the end of the world. It doesn't matter how much snow is predicted, could be a foot, could be an inch. When snow falls, we prepare to be shut in for weeks.
Well, right now, the weather people have predicted two and a half inches of ice, and up to 20 inches of snow on top of that (I'll leave a comment with the actual totals, seeing as how this should post before all the snow falls). With this forecast, the good and bad people of Saint Louis have emptied the grocery stores, Home Depots, gas stations, and Wal-Marts, of bread, milk, eggs, salt, gasoline, and various odds and ends. The blizzard that is coming has been dubbed as the snowpocalypse, or snowmageddon.
Fun names aside, what people are doing is just preparing themselves. Getting the things they need in case they can't get to the store, or anywhere else. We have been told pretty clearly that something is going to happen.
Imagine constantly preparing for a snowstorm when you don't have any idea when the snowstorm is coming. Make sure you keep enough milk, eggs, bread, or whatever on hand. Don't stockpile, but have enough to last you for a while. Don't be like everyone else who tries to grab up all they can at the last minute. You never know, the stores may run out of what you need before you can get it, and it will be too late for you.
This reminds me of the Parable of the Ten Virgins. This is a cautionary story about not being prepared. It tells of ten women waiting for a groom during the night, and have lamps to light the way. Five of them race off with not enough oil, and the other five had plenty of oil. When the time came for the groom to arrive, the five who didn't bring enough oil asked the other five for some of theirs. They didn't get any because they're wasn't enough to go around. So they left and found more oil. While they were gone, the groom arrived, they went into the wedding feast, and the doors were locked. When the women arrived, they were not allowed into the feast.
The parable ends with Jesus warning "keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour." We have been told that Jesus will come again. The problem is, that we don't know when He's coming. It could be tonight, could be next week, could be 500 years from now. We just don't know. If Jesus comes 500 years from now, the death of those living will come long before that, but we still don't know when our time on Earth will expire.
I know I've talked on this topic before, but it is not beneath me to make constant reminders. The fact is we need to keep prepared. If you don't know how to do this, please let me know. On top of that, please read your Bible. If you don't have one, Biblegateway.com, which is where I link all my scriptural references to, had the complete Bible online, in various different English and foreign language translations. Some things might not make sense, so ask about them. Keep going, I urge you.
Make sure to pray constantly. Keep yourself in the Word.
Amen.
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