My toes are cold. I am wearing shoes and socks, and my feet are comfortable. But I can tell that my toes are chilly. This is nothing unusual. Typically they stay warm all summer. In fact, I almost cannot stand to wear anything but sandals in the summer because trapping my feet makes me feel hotter all over! Beginning in about November, though, my toes get cold and just stay that way until some time in March.
Last year, though, that did not happen. Oh, I had cold toes now and then, as can be expected. But, they never just got cold and stayed cold. I should have known by about December what that meant: no winter. I didn’t realize it, though. Only when the farmers began planting about a month early this past spring did it dawn on me that my warm toes warned me ahead of time that waiting for winter was futile.
I know you could probably care less about my toes, but there is a thought here to chase. As fall settled in and my feet did not get cold, I should have noticed. No overnight frost. No major temperature dips. Just mild, comfortable weather.
Scripture warns us to watch the signs in the world around us. I’ll be honest – I struggle with prophetic and apocalyptic literature in the Bible, and I would rather read any other part of Scripture. But much is revealed to us in those difficult and confusing passages about awareness. Paying attention. Observing what is going on right around us and making solid, biblical conclusions about where we are and what we should be prepared for. Even if the specifics elude us, the reminder to be alert should be obvious.
Without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, there is no way we can discern what our current circumstances mean. With His teaching, however, we can take what we see in Scripture and apply it to where we are today. And we can be prepared!
My lack of cold feet last year was no big deal and truly required no major action. The state of our world today is a different story. What needs to capture our attention today?
Not Quite Ordinary 