The Earthquake That Came at Breakfast

On February 6, 2023, at 4:17 in the morning, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria. In the city of Gaziantep, Mehmet Aydin had just risen early to prepare his family's bakery for the morning rush. His neighbor, Hasan, was still asleep two floors above. Both men had lived side by side for twenty years on the same street, sharing tea in the evenings, arguing about football matches. When the shaking stopped forty-five seconds later, Mehmet stood in his doorway covered in dust but alive. Hasan's building had pancaked into rubble.

No seismologist predicted that exact morning. No alarm sounded at 4:16. The tectonic plates had been building pressure for centuries, and the rupture came without appointment. One man was standing; one was lying down. One was awake; one was not.

Jesus told His disciples that the Son of Man would come just like this — at an hour no one expects. Not to frighten us into anxiety, but to wake us into faithfulness. The people in Noah's day were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. There was nothing wrong with any of it — except that they lived as though the ordinary would last forever.

The call of Matthew 24 is not to predict the moment but to live ready. Every morning we rise is an invitation from the Almighty to be found awake, faithful, and watching — not because disaster looms, but because our Lord draws near.