The Earthquake That Came at Dinner

On February 6, 2023, families across southern Turkey sat down to ordinary Monday evening meals. In Gaziantep, a mother named Fatma was warming lentil soup. In Hatay, a university student was video-calling his girlfriend. In Adiyaman, a father had just carried his sleeping daughter to bed. At 4:17 the next morning, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake shattered the night. Over 50,000 people died. Not one of them had penciled "earthquake" into their calendar.

The survivors all said the same thing afterward: "We had no warning." Seismologists confirmed it — the fault had been building pressure for centuries, but the exact moment of rupture was unknowable. The people who survived in the highest numbers were those who had already prepared. They knew where the load-bearing walls were. They kept shoes by the bed. They had a plan not because they knew when disaster would strike, but because they accepted that it could come at any moment.

Jesus told His disciples that the Son of Man would come at an hour they did not expect — like a thief arriving while the household sleeps. His point was never to frighten us into anxiety but to call us into a life of perpetual readiness. The Almighty does not reveal the timeline so that we will live every single day as though it matters — because it does. Readiness is not a moment of panic. It is a lifestyle of faithfulness.