But many people I knew were petrified. They’d set up Y2K closets in their homes stocked with a few weeks worth of canned food, medical supplies and board games that would somehow keep them alive long-term during a breakdown of civilization. They kept telling my family we ought to build a Y2K closet of our own. They tried to convince me that Y2K would shut down all the factories in foreign countries, making consumer goods scarce; it would even shut down the automatic doors in grocery stores so that no one could get inside for good old-fashioned looting. And they weren’t the worst, not by far. The worst people were the preachers on the creepy little local access Protestant preaching television station. These preachers sold every kind of emergency survival item you can imagine: food, first aid, the works. They spoke for hours about how every church community needed to stet up a base of operations to survive the coming disaster; they needed to hoard supplies and strengthen one another for the crisis ahead, but Jesus would see them through.
And then, at midnight on January First, 2000, nothing happened.
Life went on as it had before, except that it was hard to remember what to write on checks.
The families in the homeschool group were embarrassed– though the housewives quickly discovered that it was actually rather nifty to have a closet stocked full of non-perishable food for evenings when there wasn’t anything for supper and they didn’t feel like going to the store. They vowed to keep the tradition of the Y2K closet going throughout the years, and for all I know they still do.
We eventually replaced our 1996 Macintosh.
The TV preachers never changed, though. They’re still selling supplies for a coming disaster to this day. For all I know those apocalypse survival floating buckets are the exact ones manufactured in 1999. Don’t eat anything in them before you check the date.
Now, lest anyone think I’ve misled you, let me be brutally honest: the End Times are indeed upon us. The last days are here. We can be absolutely certain of this. You and I, everybody reading this, has something less than one lifetime left before we die, or before Jesus returns. One of those things will happen to you. This has been the case for everyone since the moment Christ ascended into Heaven. For all I know, the world will go on for thousands more years before Christ returns to earth in glory, but I myself am not going to live thousands more years on this fallen earth and neither are you. Every human being is always living in her own personal End Times. We’re born on the battlefield of our own Apocalypse, and at the end of our days we will come face to face with our Creator. I am not 100% certain of how it will play out, but it’s going to happen to me and it’s going to happen to you. It’s going to happen soon.
When that day comes, I don’t believe that Christ will ask us how well we stocked our Y2K closet or whether our buckets of rations floated. I don’t think He’ll be interested in how many calories, bandages or board games we hoarded for ourselves.
I know for certain that we will be questioned on what we did with whatever hoard we had. I know, because He warned me Himself, and He warned all of His disciples. He will ask us what we did with what we were given. When we saw Him hungry, thirsty, naked, ill, in prison, homeless, a refugee, ignorant, lonely, afraid, did we open our homes and our Y2K closets to comfort Him? Did we use our time, talent, wealth, canned goods, first aid kits and board games to benefit Him physically, emotionally and spiritually as best we could? Did we defend Him, shelter Him, speak for Him, pray for Him, seek Him out when He went missing? Did we do our best to love Him in the disguise of our neighbor as ourselves, and act accordingly with our whole hearts? Did we even notice Him knocking at our door when we were busy expanding our store rooms to survive the coming disaster? Did we ignore Him suffering on the doorstep when we went out to purchase another first aid kit?
All other things being equal, it’s good to be prepared. As my friends discovered nearly twenty years ago, it’s useful to have a well-stocked disaster cupboard even when there’s no disaster forthcoming. Such things can be prudent for everyday life. But when the real End comes, they’ll be beside the point.
What we absolutely must hoard for that terrible day, is mercy. We must perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and we must repent and seek the mercy of God for every time we ought to have but didn’t. This isn’t some kind of side job for the Christian; it has to be central to our lives, because it is where we meet Christ.
Seek the Lord while He may be found, because that preacher is right about one thing: the End Times are upon us. But a floating bucket won’t save you in the end.
(image via Pixabay)
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