Its Not the End of the World

So. It appears that we are all still here and the world did not end... Not that I ever thought for a second that it would.

Of course when I heard on the news that some guy was claiming that Saturday was Doomsday, I paid it no mind.
See I've been hearing that the world's gonna end since I was six years old.
My folks were heavily into the whole Rapture/End Times gig when they were young Christian Hippies in the Seventies. They would send me outside to play while they gassed about it with their friends... but I would sneak back in, hide behind a chair and listen.

I was convinced that growing up was something that would never happen to me. Got a nasty shock when it actually did.

My mum sat me down to talk to me about the Birds and the Bees... I stuck my fingers in my ears and told myself I didn't need to know what to do with a Tampon because I would not be growing up.

Or there was the time I came home from school to find the house empty... the doors open, the kettle bubbling away filling the house with steam, just like in those freaky movies... I sat down on the floor and cried. I knew it, I said to myself. The Rapture has come and I've been left behind.
Actually our neighbour had an accident and my mum went to help her, and forgot to shut the doors and turn off the kettle. But how was I to know that?

{Anyone else remember those dreadful 70's "mark of the Beast" movies??}

All of this means that when I come across people who go around claiming the End is Nigh, I ignore them. Get annoyed with them, sure; wish they wouldn't make the rest of us look like goobers, yep.  But basically, apart from an inner cringe, I pay no attention to those loop-the-loops.

Sadly there were some who got sucked in by Mr Doomsday. Gave away their stuff and quit their jobs. Now they are lost and abandoned by the guy they believed in - and looking mighty silly too. Sad.

Now don't get me wrong... I am a huge Believer in Jesus. Totally love the guy; wouldn't have survived if I hadn't had His help to get through the rough patches.
I rely on Him, pray to Him, thank Him for all the Blessings He sends my way.

But I figure when He said, "No man knows the day or hour when I'll be returning..." He meant it.
No. Man. Knows.

And I'm happy with that.
I heard someone say once, Live every day like its your last, but plan as if you're gonna live to 100.

Heck, I've got more chance of getting run over by a bus than getting Raptured tomorrow (especially the way some bus drivers go about their business...)

Every day is precious. We don't know when our time is up.
Tragedies happen all the time without walking round expecting the world to end any day!?!

The challenge for me is to live every day like its my last - by making sure my loved ones know I love them, doing my best with what I have, making every day count.

But at the same time building for the future as if I'll be sticking around to see my great grandkids. Making wise decisions. Planning and preparing for my kids futures.

One day we were watching the 6 O'clock News and some Scientist came on and said, "In 150 million years such-and-such-Planet's orbit will send it crashing into Earth..." There was a graphic showing two planets colliding. Great.

My imaginative sensitive deep-thinking boy Dash was watching and he totally missed the bit about the millions of years. He heard only that the world is going to end.
And proceeded to have nightmares for the next week.

I nearly cried when he asked me, "Mummy will I not get to grow up and get married and have kids...?"
Grrrrrrr.

You can bet I reassured him that we will all be around for a long time. That I am looking forward to dancing at his wedding, being a granny to his babies, seeing him play soccer for the All Whites...
I don't want him to grow up with a sense that there is no future! That the world will die around us.
Makes. Me. Cross.

So whether its some Scientific prediction or a Doomsday Con Artist, let nobody take tomorrow away from my kids!

If planets collide, I don't want to know in advance.
If Jesus returns, He won't catch me watching the skies.

Not because I don't believe. But because I'll have my hands full preparing my kids for a very long, full, worthwhile, good life here on Planet Earth.
♥

......................

Thoughts, anyone??