To Everything There Is a Season (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

A legend from the Bagdad of long ago tells of a wealthy merchant who sent his servant to the marketplace. The servant returned empty-handed and terribly frightened. He said that on his way to the marketplace he had met Death, and Death made a threatening gesture at him.

Borrowing the merchant's fastest horse the frightened servant raced to Samaria to hide, for he was certain death would never find him there.

The merchant went to the marketplace to buy what the servant had not, and there he also met Death. He asked him, "Why did you frighten my servant with a threatening gesture?"

Death replied, "Sir, I did not threaten him. My gesture was one of surprise when I saw him here in Bagdad, for I have an appointment with him this evening in Samaria."

"Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is
coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Luke 12:40)