12/12/12. Enjoy it while it lasts because it won’t happen again for another hundred years. It was only eleven years ago that nerds worldwide celebrated Binary Day (01/01/01), snickering at the rest of the population over their little inside joke, toasting each other with Diet Mountain Dew, and quoting Klingon proverbs to each other. Will today achieve the same notoriety? Some people will notice and others will not. And why should they? It’s just another day, no?
If you listen to the sensationalist media, the Mayans have predicted that we won’t make it past Christmas! As I heard someone humorously explain, the Mayans left another less well-known message, “Sorry about not finishing the calendar, but we’re a little tied up right now with these Spanish jerks!”
Jesus told us that only the Father knows the date and time of the end of the world. He taught us that we would do better to concern ourselves only with today, “which has troubles enough of its own.”¹ In fact, for many people across the planet, 12/12/12 is the end of the world as they know it. Some will die today. Some will be involved in accidents or be diagnosed with diseases that irrevocably change their lives. Or these things will happen to a loved one. The point is, we are never promised a tomorrow.
A great saint once said that the past and the future are just other forms of self. The past consists of nothing but our memories, and the future consists only of our dreams. The only reality is now. You and I exist in the now of this very moment. Even as you read this, God is sustaining your life from nanosecond to nanosecond, always waiting to see if you will turn toward Him.
It is God’s mercy that creates us, sustains us through our days, however many there may be, and it is His mercy that will bring us to our heavenly home…if we will only respond to Him…today.
¹Matthew 6:34
