Signs of the seasons

Jesus, teach me to notice the signs of change around me. Amen!

"At the end of the world, the sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will fall from the sky," said Jesus. "Then I'll come back and gather all the good people in the world. When a tree grows leaves, you know summer is coming. When you see the signs I talked about, know that God is coming."

Autumn is a fun season because you never know what will happen next. One day, it'll be almost as warm as summer, and people wear shorts and go apple-picking. But the next day might be rainy and cold. You even see snowflakes sometimes!

Crazy weather in the fall is fun, but you know that sunshine doesn't mean it's summer again and snow doesn't mean it's winter yet. In a way, that's what Jesus wanted us to remember from this week's Gospel (Mark 13:24-32).

Jesus talked about signs. People see signs that mean something all the time: sunshine in summer, colored leaves in fall or snow in winter, for example. But the signs Jesus recited -- the sun and moon darkening, and stars falling -- meant the end of the world was coming.

Signs are helpful, but they aren't meant to scare people. If you see snow in November, it shouldn't scare you into thinking winter is here already! You can recognize sings that the seasons are changing without worrying too much about it.

If the sun and moon disappear, and the stars fall, Jesus did want us to know it meant He was coming back soon. But He didn't want people to spend every day worrying about that.

Signs like snow remindus to get ready for winter. If we see the signs Jesus told us about, we'll know to get ready for Him. But there's a lot of time left before that change!