Only an optimist would have called it a town. It was just a settlement, a few houses in the Canadian prairie. One house, a little larger than the others, had a Canada Post sign, the villagers’ means of reaching the world.
But it was obvious that the world reached them, too. Whatever the little gathering of domiciles didn’t have, each roof sported a TV antenna. Isolated though they were, they had to know “what was going on” in the world outside.
I was standing in the little post office where the postmistress (are we allowed to say that anymore?) was serving one of the community. As the transaction took place, the conversation turned from local and personal news to the international scene.
Another war somewhere, in a country most of us could not locate on a map, with tongue-twister names that made newscasters coast to coast break into a sweat.
One tragedy followed another: wars and rumors of wars; the floodtide of crime, lapping at our doorsteps; families collapsing, bringing down the nations with them. The sad litany read like civilization’s obituary.
Finally, “What is the world coming to?” the customer asked no one in particular. The question has been posed many times. No one expects a reply except, perhaps, a sigh. It is meant to be rhetorical, not because there is no answer, but because people fear that there might be one. Usually it hangs there, unanswered.
But not this day. The postmistress stopped what she was doing and raised her eyes to meet her neighbor’s. “What is the world coming to? An end,” she said.
The customer, unsure what to do, mumbled a half-hearted thank you–for the services rendered, not for the answer–turned and left. And I wondered: if he was unsure what to do there in the post office, what would he do when Almighty God reaches for the lock and says, “Gentlemen, it’s closing time.”
But her answer set me to thinking. If the world is coming to an end, what should my response be? When we look at the world today, what do we see? Turning to the Scriptures, I did not have far to look.
Trust: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass…” (Mt. 24:6). While this is spoken to those who will not travel more than 2,000 cubits on the sabbath day (v. 20), that is, orthodox Jews, we certainly can take the exhortation to heart. The Lord is right on schedule. “These things,” even the worst of things, come to pass. But heaven will come to stay.
Care: “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:15-17). If we are, in fact, on the doorstep of eternity, it is no time to be wasting what resources we have as stewards of God. As Thoreau wrote: “You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.”
Holiness: “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God…” (2 Pet. 3:11-12). Imagine walking by a condemned house. But you notice the lights are on. As you look closer, you see a team of people frantically redecorating the place. To your entreaties they turn a deaf ear, asking you not to bother them. They are very busy, they say. No time to chat. But are we any different if we pour our lives into a doomed world, ready for the fire?
Fellowship: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:25). How we need each other as the world turns its fury on those who represent God’s Christ. Growing more frantic as God leaves men to their own resources, the world increasingly fulfills our Lord’s prophecy, “These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you…the world hateth you” (Jn. 15:17-19). We must hang together, as Ben Franklin said, or we will hang separately.
But whatever else we see, we must see this: “Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet…Now we see not yet all things put under Him. But we see Jesus…” (Heb. 2:8-9). That’s what that the world is coming to.
The blessed nail-pierced feet of the Lord Jesus.