People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. …  
It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. … 
I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 
–Luke 17:27, 30, 34

What if Jesus wasn’t talking about end times
but the end of life as we thought it would be?

We’re going along 
doing what we do–
eating, drinking, and making plans for the future–
then a diagnosis,
artillery fire,
or a flood
destroys it all.

One is taken
by dementia or death;
another is left
by the one they thought
would love them forever.

One day, we celebrate and pick baby names,
and the next, we’ve lost our hair
and the chemo’s rendered us barren.

One day, we’re clearing our schedules
and exploring retirement,
and the next, we’re cleaning our parents’ dentures
and picking up prescriptions.

Other people
live in war zones,
are struck by lightning,
or are robbed and vandalized.
Other people
are marginalized and beaten
but not us.

Then “on that day,”
we became 
the ones pitied.
On that day,
we no longer said,
“I’m glad I’m not them.”

This is the coming of the kingdom?

Yes.
That’s exactly how the kingdom comes–
not as a flood
but as a force,
grounding us in the flood.

In the middle
of Jesus’ doom and gloom speech,
he offered hope.
“Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it,
and whoever loses their life will preserve it.”

We have a choice about whether or not
we will try and hold onto the life we’ve lost,
but we don’t have a say
in how we lose it.

“It’s okay,” the Son of Man says gently.
“You can let go.
Feel the earth beneath your feet.
You’re on kingdom soil.
On this day,
the Son of Man will be revealed
to be even more
than you hoped for
or imagined.”

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
–Luke 19:10

Credits and References:
Bangladesh, 2020. Houses are nearly submerged due to flooding in Sirajganj, Bangladesh. Credit: Moniruzzaman Sazal / Climate Visuals Countdown, Creative Commons
“On That Day” by Esther Hizsa, 2023.
“Barefoot on red dirt” FrankOWeaver, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

© Esther Hizsa, An Everyday Pilgrim, 2023.
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without permission from Esther Hizsa is prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used provided there is a link to the original content and credit is given as follows: © Esther Hizsa, An Everyday Pilgrim 2013-2023.  http://www.estherhizsa.com