Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’  You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.  A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”  Jesus then left them and went away.

• Matthew 16:1-4

When we were visiting our younger son in Tennessee, my wife had her dialysis in the early morning.  The sun was coming up as I drove from the dialysis center back to their home.  One morning, the sky was this strange combination of pink, purple, and orange.  The photo, as most photos like it, does not do the colors justice.  It did not rain that day, so it did not follow the red sky concept that Jesus talks about.

Although Jesus talked of red sky in morning as a warning of rainy weather that day, at least precipitation, most of us know the poem instead.  “Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.  Red sky at night, sailors delight.”

And yet nothing is dais of pink and purple skies.  Jesus also mentioned overcast, and you can see that the skies were far from overcast.  Other than the oddly shaped whisp of a cloud, the skies were clear.

It is odd.  A week before, we were driving up the interstate, and we turned north in a curve.  I exclaimed, “The Simpson’s in the sky!”  My son laughed and agreed.  The sky was an unusual, unreal blue.  The clouds were clean and white, looking to have been cartoon clouds, drawn above the horizon.  For a moment, you expected the clouds to part and the words “The Simpsons” to be in the sky.  Then again, I have not watched the show in over 20 years.  Their opening credits may have changed several times since then.  And is it just me, but shouldn’t Bart and Lisa be old enough to be grandparents by now?  Or at least getting close?

And is it also not strange that we are no different than the Pharisees and Sadducees.  We know the poem, but few know the origin was in Biblical times and quoted by Jesus.  We can see a cloud formation and it reminds us of a television show that depicts the family unit as being totally dysfunctional.  But we cannot read the signs of the times.

We have gone so far from God that the ABC mentality prevails, meaning “Anything-But-Christianity.”  The woke liberal progressivism of today cannot coexist with Christianity (although that brainwashing technique prevails on bumper stickers).  For the woke in this new generation, Christianity must water down their message into nothingness, or they will be “cancelled.”

And yet, we see puffy clouds, and we laugh.  In an old Peanuts strip, Lucy, Linus, and Charlie Brown are lying in the grass, looking at clouds.  Linus sees the map of British Honduras (now Belize), also an image of Thomas Eakins, the painter and sculptor, and then a group of clouds that looked like the stoning of the Christian martyr Stephen, complete with Saul holding everyone’s coats.  Lucy then asked Charlie Brown what he saw, and he says, “Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but I changed my mind!” (Charles M. Schulz)

What do you see in the clouds?  Someday, we will see Jesus, bringing an army with Him.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.