In the Blink of an Eye
So-o-o-o… yesterday I was knocked out! On purpose! Oh, it was nothing romantic or dramatic. I wasn’t rendered comatose by a stray baseball, a falling brick or an enraged attacker. I actually asked for this. It was one of those unglamorous “over 50” medical procedures that is best experienced un-consciously!
The day before the test I went through some “prep.” Some people find this disgusting and difficult. I found it a bit challenging, but mostly “cleansing.” I followed the doctor’s orders carefully, because I didn’t want them to tell me “sorry… can’t take you today after all.” I wanted to be ready for the big event.
Being anesthetized has always been a very intriguing process to me. One second I was relaxing on a table, cheerfully conversing with the doctor and other medical personnel in the room. They slipped me something called Versed through my vein and the next I was waking up in a completely different room with the strangest sense that I just lost a small chapter of my life with not the slightest memory of it. Of course I didn’t really lose it at all. While I was in la-la land, I was being poked and prodded, rolled around and examined closely… and amazingly I felt nothing. But clearly something was being done to me. They even gave me some embarrassing pictures of my insides to prove it!
My husband said I was pretty funny when “coming to.” My speech sounded like a sponge was stuffed in my mouth, and I kept asking him over and over what the time was. But I couldn’t remember any of that and later I made him promise that he would never blackmail me by threatening to divulge my crazy comments to others.
How sobering that in what seems to be a speck of time, a person can fall asleep and wake up changed just moments later.
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.”
In the busy routines of life, I sometimes forget that I’m preparing for a really, really important blink of an eye. It may be death, or it may be Christ’s return… but either way it will be a flash and I will be changed. We all will. It’s a procedure that’s been scheduled for each one of us! We’ll fall asleep here on earth and wake up in eternity! Amazing!
I can’t help but think that if I kept this upcoming appointment more in the forefront of my thinking, I’d probably make a lot of different choices in the course of my day. I believe I’d follow Jesus’ orders more conscientiously. I’m sure I’d be more motivated to help others get ready as well.
“Lord would You do whatever it takes to keep eternity in my thoughts today? When I get lazy about preparing… would You get my attention and remind me that the big blink is coming? Thank you Lord. I need Your help!”
You know… it was great seeing my husband’s smiling face and getting a good report from the doctor after my black-out yesterday. But I’m convinced that’s nothing compared to what I’ll feel when I see Jesus’ smiling face and hear His Father welcome me to heaven.
Somehow in a nanosecond, in a blink of an eye, He’ll change us all forever! I don’t know how He’ll do it, but I’m pretty sure He won’t use anesthesia!