Matthew 22:1-14

Matthew 22:1-14 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Yesterday was a rough day.  At church, I heard the tragic tale of a 30-year old woman who was 7 months pregnant with her first child and suddenly passed away.  Just heartbreaking, the kind of pain that transcends words and leaves you simply praying for the Holy Spirit to show up and offer enough strength to make it through the day. 
  And then I stopped by a roadside stand selling honey on the way home.  I got to talking to the guy, and he and his wife had retired to the area after 40 years of marriage, thinking they knew what their future together held.  Then their eldest daughter died, and then his wife got sick and died two weeks later, and there he was, uncertain what his future looked like.  We prayed together, but it was hard to find the words.
  Friends, we truly don't know what tomorrow holds.  These heartbreaks reminded me of that.  We certainly take life for granted, assuming that tomorrow will be like today, that our plans will be realized, that we have some semblance of control as the earth spins through this crazy universe.  Every now and again we get reminded of how little control we have, and we have a choice -- will we cling to the one who throws the wedding feast, following and serving the one who has power over life and death, or will we continue to try and stubbornly do things our own way, thinking that we know best, that if we just try harder we'll figure it all out.
  It is my prayer that we all have decades left to love and to serve and to draw nearer to God.  But we don't have any guarantee of that.  May we open our eyes and our hearts to Scripture and trust in the God who transcends time and space and invites us to reign with him in the eternal Kingdom.