Signs From a Fig Tree

Matthew 24:32-35:

³² “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³ Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it^[a] is near, right at the door. ³⁴ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

 In the same way, when Christ returns, I believe it will be clear. There will be signs that we cannot miss, just like a vibrant red sugar maple. No one looks at such a tree and debates whether fall is coming--it is clear. In the same way, when Christ does return, I don't think there will be any room for debate.

Until then, Christ has given us plenty to do--love and serve our neighbors, work for justice and peace, proclaim the name of Christ to every corner of the globe. Let's get busy focusing on that!
Even as the person with ordinary common sense and powers of observation needs no further evidence for the fact that summer is near when he sees the fig-tree's branches become soft with the swelling sap and the young leaves pushing forth from the buds, so the disciple of Christ who sees the signs of which Christ speaks in the whole chapter, including the destruction of Jerusalem, understands and knows that the final judgment is upon him, at his very door.

And here is another sign, a further proof for the truth of His saying, for the soundness of His prophecy: This generation will not pass away till all this will come to pass. He means to say, either: The Jewish nation will remain on earth as a race, with all the racial characteristics, till the Day of Judgment; or: The generation of children which I have chosen, My Church, will not pass away, it will stand against all attempts to overthrow it, to all eternity. Amid the crash of worlds, when heaven and earth turn back into chaos and are destroyed, the Word of the Lord abideth forever.