Changing Seasons

School starts tomorrow here. For weeks, parents have been scouring the school supply aisles in the stores for just the right items listed on the papers posted for each school and grade. We were in Walmart today, and school shoppers had an almost panicky look about them as they hurried along with a child in tow, getting necessities at the last minute. It almost reminded me of people ransacking the shelves when an ice storm or hurricane is in the forecast!

I couldn't help thinking of the harried and hurried pace of our lives today, the feeling of a shadow of urgency looming like a cloud in our common subconscious. Everyone knows something is going to happen, but no one knows what. Economic, political, natural disasters--something apocalyptic?  It seems as if God Himself is sending signals that something momentous is imminent.

My husband tells me statistics show that Bible sales are at an all-time high! Hopefully that means people are seeking God. Or likely they are trying to find insight into today's disturbing world events.  Are these the last days?  Or the last of the last days?  Things seem to point in that direction.

Yet much of the world is living in a frenzy!  Schedules keep families running here and there.  Sports, entertainment, eating out and night life consume lives. It is reminiscent of what I have heard about the society of Berlin in WWII when the fall was imminent.  In the book, The Longest Day, the people are portrayed as partying wildly, expecting their doom.

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

Jesus tells the story of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.  They were concerned to have their lamps lit and burning. The five foolish ones let their light go out.  Our school children go to school to let the light of knowledge fill their minds.  Maybe we all need to go back to the Bible, our textbook for living in this life, and the life to come!