A young couple boards the plane with great anticipation. They have been married only a few hours and are now traveling to Europe for their honeymoon. The promise of their young lives seems to stretch unendingly before them. Yet, thirty minutes later, their flight, TWA 800, lies a tangled heap at the bottom of the ocean. Their lives along with hundreds of others are tragically ended in a terrifying flash of light as the great airliner explodes in an instant. No warning; no chance to prepare; only a sudden, unimaginable horror.

While the popular slogan is true that “life is what happens while you are making other plans,” so it can be said of death.

Each of us is sobered for a few moments, or even a few days, when we hear reports of such tragedies. But, in short order we return to the routine normalcy of our own lives, seemingly unaware that the same fate awaits us all. “No one knows the day or hour!” We are guaranteed no warning, no time for repentance, no time to make amends. “So you must also be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”Be prepared.