The Lesson of the Disappearing Aunt

I have a story to tell.  I have lots of stories to tell actually, but you only have to put up with one today.  It does have a purpose and I do have a direction for it, believe it or not, I am getting to it.  My aunt and I went to Walmart one day.  It was a busy day at Wallyworld, as always, lots of people, crowded isles, etc.  We managed to get what we needed and get into line without much ado.  We were visiting and enjoying one another's company and waiting, and waiting.  Well, there are lots of squirrels in a Walmart check-out line, some put there by Satan I am sure, but not all are Satan's squirrels.  This line was particularly long and tedious.  I was momentarily distracted into reading the cover of a magazine with a rather scrumptious looking desert on the front.  That's what squirrels do, they distract you.  Anyway, I looked up from the magazine cover and my aunt was GONE.  Just gone, vanished!  I looked left, I looked right, I looked in the people in front, in the people behind, I stood on my tiptoes to peer over the crowds... no aunt.  I stood there, stunned - alone - in a giant pushing crowd of people- and one thought went through my head over and over... I JUST MISSED THE RAPTURE!  Jesus returned for his people and I missed it!  I found myself going over my life lately to see what I had done wrong.  I was telling myself, no that can't happen to me.  Then I would tell myself, yes it can - no one knows the day or the hour...!  Then I searched around, looking for other missing people, looking for commotion and confusion.  I thought, could this many people really have missed it.  Could this many people really have been left behind by Jesus.  Yes, they could.  I kept convincing myself that it couldn't happen yet, while searching for my vanished aunt (I must admit, I even looked for dropped objects and piles of clothes) still in the checkout line.   Even as I was in denial, my fear of the tribulation grew.  I was setting myself to endure.   My eyes finally caught her, sitting on a bench, waiting.  The rapture had not taken her, Jesus did not leave me here to rot.  I prayed then and there, actually I had been praying the whole time of disbelief and blaring doubt.  Then, I laughed, I laughed, I laughed, and I laughed some more.  But there was a part of me that wasn't laughing.  God taught me a lesson that day.  I knew/know that Jesus is coming "like a thief in the night".  We won't know when, not 'til it is to late.  That is exactly how it will happen.  We will be going about our daily routine, minding our own business, reading about mint icing, or which TV star got fat... and bam, our aunts will be gone.  Or our mailman, or our children, or our co-worker.  Be ready, pray, ask forgiveness, worship, serve, be ready.  Don't be left behind in a Walmart checkout line, or anywhere else.