Are You Ready?

September 17, 2023

Reflections from the Heart of Allan Redenius
Birds on a wire, we’ve all seen them in the fall of the year.  Gathering together to begin their migration to the south.  Have you ever wondered, how do they know?  Did somebody send out a memo that said, “Time to gather, everyone meet on the high line!”
 
All of nature seems to know the coming change of season, any season.  Bears eat more before they hibernate.  The rut for deer and elk is in the fall so that their young are born in the warmth of spring.  Robins return to Iowa in mid-March signaling warmer weather ahead.  Sometimes they get fooled with a late snowstorm.  Even without a change in temperature, the leaves on the trees begin to change in mid-August anticipating the frost to come.  I wish I were better at reading the signs of the seasons and the weather.
 
Somehow, animals instinctively know when they are about to die.  Often they hide somewhere to be all alone.  I think sometimes people know instinctively when they are about to die too.  My Mom, who was battling cancer, was at our house for Thanksgiving and when it was time to go home, we all said, “See you at Christmas.”  To that she replied, “I won’t be here for Christmas.”  Two weeks later, she died.  How did she know?
 
Sometimes, it’s just a gift of God for people to have that premonition.  In my Mom’s case, she had that feeling.  Yet, even knowing that she was soon to die, she showed no fear.  She had no fear because she loved the Lord.  By God’s grace, she died with grace.
 
Now the disciples asked of Jesus, when will you return.  To them, and all of us, in Matthew 25, Jesus recited all the signs of the end times.  I look around and see many of the signs of which Jesus spoke, happening in our day.  I have a feeling that Jesus will return very soon.  Hear the warning from Jesus.  “…when ye shall see all these things, know that the end is near, even at the door.”  (Matthew 25:33)
 
But only God knows the day and the hour.  Our job is to be ready….
 
Keep watching….I have a feeling,
Pastor Allan
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