how naive we are...

There has been some email chatter about the end of the world occuring during the year 2012. It reminded me of a story about my childhood.

When I was younger, I used to be afraid of the "end of the world" or the "rapture" or anything along those lines. And to be honest, I'm still not completely comfortable with the idea. I think it is the uncertainty that surrounds the end times that concerns me. It's like Billy Graham once said...he's not afraid of dying, but of the process of death.

Anyway.

I remember being about 8 or 9 years old and sitting in church one day, listening to the preacher (not my dad) preach and he mentioned the verse in 1st Thessalonians that states:

Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

So somehow in my young mind, I felt a peace. I thought, "If the Bible CLEARLY states that no one knows the time, then everyone who makes a doomsday prediction must instantly be wrong." So...to give myself even more peace, I thought I would prevent the end of the world being soon by saying every day, "Jesus will come today," therefore instantly creating this "problem" for Jesus because if he came back that day, I would have known. So, this would be a contradiction to scripture, and that can't happen. So clearly, I had found the answer.

Oh how funny that is when I look back on it...to think that I could tell God what to do. I'm sure God had a good chuckle at it too...as he does everytime I try to limit his power in my life. We're all still children, in our heart of hearts. Now, I no longer try to limit God's ability to end the world, I just try to limit his ability to watch over me with his perfect plans for my life. It's days like today when I feel like I am not an adult, just a child in a larger body...and I will always remain a child of God.