Heartthoughts: It Happened One Night

“Hurry, Howard! It’s cold out here!” I urged my husband as I scurried to the restaurant entrance while he was still getting out of the car. The March wind was whipping on this misty, grey evening, but we would soon be inside. There were lots of cars here, so there must be a good attendance at the party for our friend’s 93rd birthday. I could see the cozy scene through the plate glass windows of people gathered around tables, laughing and talking. I thought we were right on time, but maybe we were a little late.

As my husband walked up, I grabbed the door handle and gave it a pull. What? Nothing! “It’s locked!” I exclaimed. The door wouldn’t open! “Let’s try the door on the other side. They must be using that door,” he directed, as we headed to the other side of the glass entrance. It was locked, too! There was a sign that said, “Please Use Other Door.” What other door? We dashed around the corner of the building, but were only met with an expanse of brick wall.

By this time, Howard was rapping on the glass, trying to get someone’s attention. I recognized faces of the honoree’s family, but they only glanced up then went on eating. Finally, someone got up, came through the inner door, opened the entrance and let us in. “We must be late!” I apologized. “I thought it was for 5:30.” Turns out it was for five o’clock. We had driven the 15 miles or so from our neighboring town, and it was nearing six o’clock by this time.

“Oh, that’s okay,” the young man assured us. “We just got started. Come on in!” He explained that they had reserved the restaurant, so the owner had locked the doors when they began. Most of the spaces at the long tables were filled, but he showed us to two seats at one end of a table. “We’re just having our salads,” he said, pointing us to the salad bar. By this time, people were smiling, nodding and welcoming us to the party. It felt so good to be in out of the cold! More and more faces began to look familiar. We had grown up with the children of the birthday guest, but we had lived away for a lifetime and had reconnected with them only in recent years, mostly at events like this.

Howard was soon engrossed in conversation with the person across from us, thoroughly enjoying uncovering bits of the past and acquaintances held in common. It was like playing detective in a mystery novel as he unraveled threads of information that were inadvertently dropped by this stranger. “Oh, I remember him!” Howard would say, or, “They used to trade at my dad’s store!” I chimed in, too, reminding and clarifying, when I wasn’t talking to the old acquaintance on my right. After all, we’d both grown up here.

Later, I reflected on how we felt when we couldn’t get in the door, and the similarities to the story of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. The five foolish who had let their lamps go out and were too late for the wedding feast found themselves on the outside looking in. Verse 10 says, “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut.” Jesus reminds us to be ready in verse 13, when he says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” It pays to know what time it is.