An item in the newspaper obituaries caught my eye: So and so “died unexpectedly at the age of 74.” I am aware of many friends who have recently died “unexpectedly” in their seventies and eighties. Yet I spoke to another friend yesterday who is going to be ninety-seven next month! What do we expect? We can be alive and thriving one moment and unexpectedly have a stroke, suffer from a brain tumor or an aneurysm, fall and fracture our hip, are hit with inoperable cancer, experience a fatal accident or pass away peacefully in our sleep. No matter how careful we are, how diligent we exercise and eat a healthy diet, how proficient our physicians and medical care, we are all mortal and our times are not in our hands. We must expect that one day we will die. No death should be unexpected. The challenge of aging is to be prepared for the inevitable without being morbidly preoccupied with it.

Jesus said, “Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Matt.24:42-44)

“We must remember that the watching of the Christian for the coming of Christ is not the watching of terror-stricken fear and shivering apprehension; it is the watching of eager expectation for the coming of the glory and the joy. The spirit that leads to disaster is the spirit which says there is plenty of time. The most dangerous day in a man’s life is when he learns that there is such a word as tomorrow. There are things that cannot be put off, for no man knows if for him tomorrow will ever come. When James Barrie [the author of Peter Pan] was old, he would never make arrangements or give invitations for a distant date, ‘Short notice now!’ he would say.” (William Barclay)

Are you ready? Do you have your affairs in order, plans made, final arrangements completed. Sometimes the unexpected happens and you have to change your plans. We are truly at the mercy of events. Not every scenario can be anticipated. In those circumstances we discover our depth of trust in the providence of God and do the best we can with the help we can muster. In the meantime we live every moment in the presence of our Lord and Savior who will come for us and take us to himself.