"You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." // Luke 12:40*

I heaved an oversized cardboard box off the folding table in the grade school's foyer over my pregnant belly, stretched a thank-you wave to the front office ladies, and waddled out the front doors towards my minivan where my potentially exposed third-grade daughter was buckled in next to her three-year-old sister.

"We're going to have a great week of distance learning! It will be so special to have time with your little sister too." I must have said it to convince myself more than her because pregnancy during a global pandemic and juggling various school protocols with this now need to distance learn was going to crush me.

Jesus told the disciples to gird their loins because they wouldn't know when He was returning. I had lived with my loins girded for all things pandemic-related for months at this point of fall of 2020. Yet despite all my girding and attempts to keep all my ducks in a row, we faced more distance schooling, more afternoons of frustration, more things outside of my control.

Perhaps I had the wrong loins girded. I had focused very much on my list for functioning in life: toilet paper supply levels, latest numbers on infection spread, would my husband ever be able to come with me into the ultrasounds. But my awareness of God's presence and deep desire for close intimacy with Him? I'm embarrassed to say I was tuned out.

Whatever happens in the world, regardless of stresses or shocks or pandemics, are our hearts ready? Are our souls ready to meet our Maker? Let's focus on that today.

* readings from Optional Memorial of Saint Vincent Ferrer, priest

[bctt tweet="Are our hearts ready? // Nell O'Leary" username="blessedisshe__"]

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