When seagulls fly to land, a storm is at hand.
Squirrels gathering their nuts early makes for a long winter.
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.
There are indicators for change if one knows where to look. Signs, we call them, though that has a mystic overtone. Signs for the seasons. Signs for people, too. I worked with a delightful woman from Edinburgh who would come into the office, frowning, eyes narrowed, stomping in her heeled shoes. I knew she hadn't had her coffee yet and I knew better than to say a word to her until she was properly caffeinated. When she was, she was as wonderful a person to share office space with as any. But if I didn't heed the signs of morning decaffeination, I would become the recipient of a sharp tongue and baleful gaze.
I learned wisdom. I left her alone.
We, as people, like to have signs. We like to know what's happening. We have learned about weather so we can prepare ourselves. No longer does a hurricane just sort of blow in. We have learned what air and water conditions precede it, we track it, we can have a fairish idea of where it will go. We like signs.
Jesus held to signs, too, and he taught his disciples to look for them.
32 "Now from the fig tree learn this parable: As soon as its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 In the same way, when you see all these things, know that He is near--at the door! 34 I assure you: This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. (Matthew 24:32-35 HCSB)
Everyone has their own signs of summer, of course. Here, it starts raining all the time. But for Jesus' time and place, the fig tree was a good indicator of the change to summer in the seasons. The signs he is giving to his disciples here (roll your mouse over this parenthetical for links and
backtrack to the
other lessons, if you'd like a
refresher) are also indicators. They do not give dates and times, as the sprouting of a branch is not indicative of the true time a place comes into a real summer or not. The signs Christ gives are things to look for, to take note of, to make sure you're aware of as the days of your life continue forward.
The amazing thing, and something which still continues to puzzle scholars, is that the signs Jesus referred to indicated his second coming. "He is...at the door!" This is an urgent warning. Obviously, he wasn't referring to his first advent, his birth. Nor was he referring to a time when he might show up, say, at Peter's house to observe the Sabbath. The signs the disciples asked for were those that would show the End of the Age, as they specifically requested. These are those signs. Jesus is very clear on that.
What has not been so clear over the centuries is the "generation" question. A generation was generally understood to be about forty years. Some scholars maintain that the signs in question were strictly allegorical or could be explained by events that did happen, culminating with the destruction of the temple and the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70. If that is so, then indeed the generation was the one in which the disciples then lived.
The other scholastic stance is that the End of the Age that the disciples asked about would come about within a forty-year span of time from the first of the events that Christ spoke of to them on the Mount of Olives. The thing is, Jesus' teachings also touch on those of the prophet Daniel, and it is even now widely agreed that Daniel's 70th week hasn't yet happened. Most particularly, no one has fulfilled the words of Daniel in chapter 11, verses 21 - 45. (The abomination that desecrates the temple in specific ways.)
For myself, I hold to the teaching that Christ gave signs to the disciples as he did because they asked him, for one. Additionally, he knew that they would share what they learned, eventually. And he knew that the words would be passed down, taught, learned, and heeded until that time came. Remember, he didn't know for sure when the time of the End would be; only God the Father knows. But he did know what to look for. So do we.
Sailors heed the skies. People heed the flights of birds and habits of animals, and even the growth of moss to learn what the immediate future will hold. God himself has given signs of what the future will hold too, for those of us who are alive to see them.
As for me, I believe we are living in the generation Jesus spoke about above. The signs are rapidly piling up, and the days are evil.
Squirrels know enough to prepare against a bad winter. Can we do less to make ready for a time of tribulation and the meeting of God face to face? We do not, often, have the innate wisdom of simple animals, but we can learn.
I hope we do.
