Earlier this month, my husband and I spent some time traveling. On this particular trip, we embarked on one hour flight, a multiple-hour layover, and a whopping eight-hour non-stop flight. As we prepared for this 26+ hour day (with a new time zone), I quickly learned you don’t really know someone until you travel with them.
I, the world traveler, always ensure my ducks are in a row. No matter where we go, I always make a packing list and check it twice. But I am more on edge when it comes to air travel. Knowing I am not in control forces me to abide by all airport rules and suggestions – like getting to a domestic flight two hours before departure.
On the other hand, my husband is a little more chill in every aspect of life. He, unlike me, is the type to arrive an hour after the committed time. Fashionably late has been his move since we met! But this trip, his first time flying, was slightly different. He couldn’t understand why I made him wake up in the wee hours of the morning to hop on an oversized tin hours before it left the tarmac.
“It won’t take that long,” he half-heartedly assured, begging for a few more minutes of sleep.
“Planes wait for no one!” I quickly responded.
When it was all said and done, we made it through the mandatory checkpoints with a breeze. With a coffee in hand, we sat down and leisurely watched the planes roll in for an hour and a half before our own departure.
But then I heard, “Last call for flight A122.”
Next, I heard the same voice list the names of missing passengers. As I looked to my right, I noticed that at the same gate, individuals patiently stood in line, hoping to secure the missing passengers’ seats.
I can’t tell you what happened next because I was too busy boarding my ride. But as I took my seat, I thought about those late passengers. Did they not know that the door was going to close? Did they think they were too important and that the pilot would understand? And what about those in the standby line? What happened to make them franticly wait for a seat? Was it poor planning? A family emergency? Just a desire to make a quick getaway?
When it comes to purchasing a ticket to fly somewhere – you aren’t going to forget it! Between cost and (potentially exhilarating) destinations, this mode of transportation is an intentional decision. Just as I dragged my sleepy husband to our recent trip, most passengers make sure that they allow enough time to make it to their plane or connecting flight on time. After all, planes wait for no one, and neither does death.
As we soared closer to heaven, I couldn’t help but be reminded of 1 Corinthians 15:51-54. It says:
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
When that day comes, we won’t get a chance to hear a “last call,” and no amount of money will purchase a standby ticket. Instead, we will be faced with two choices – darkness or light – for the rest of eternity.
For everyone on the planet, that day is drawing closer. Every breath, day, and movement is inching us to when He returns or we close our eyes for the last time. And while we as believers have peace, we should also be burdened.
We pass coworkers, friends, family, and strangers daily without that hope. We know it. We see it. But instead of acting on moments of ministry, we buy the lie that “we’ll get to it later.”
We don’t have later church.
Graveyards are full of people who thought they had another chance.
May we never lose another opportunity to share the hope of the cross.
But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (Matthew 24:36).
