The Seventh Sign

Last night I watched a movie called "The Seventh Sign" with Demi Moore. It was an older movie (1988) that I had seen before but forgotten. It was on the apocalypse. For anyone who hasn't seen the movie, it was about the angel opening the seals, based on Revelations. Each time a seal was opened, horrible things happened, and with each the world was closer to the end. Earth quakes, volcano's, every living thing in the sea died, on and on. As I watched, I noticed that the people that made the movie was using the Bible...but really didn't understand it.

After the movie was over, I took my dogs outside. It was about 9:00 pm. The sky was beautiful. It is extremely dark where I live, so on a clear night you can see the beauty of the night skies. All of a sudden after clearing some tree branches, I saw an unusual site. THE MOON! I had never seen the moon look like that before! All of the events in the movie began racing through my mind! I ran inside and got my husband. I had him go look. Then we got on line to see what a lunar eclipse looked like, since neither one of us had seen one. PHEW! That's what it was! On February 20th...there was to be an eclipse!

At the time it was scary. Then later I chuckled to myself, because I had allowed a movie to make me believe that perhaps the time was near. Then today I began thinking about all of this. We don't know the time, do we? We will see signs of the apocalypse. The signs have already begun. In a sense, it will be scary. But we are not suppose to be afraid. "Fear is of Satan, not of God". If we allow fear in, we are allowing satan to have control over our lives. I do not choose fear.

When that time comes, we are to look up for our Savior. He will be there to save us. All of these things must come to pass, to bring about the changes that we need to survive. To live in a world that no longer is filled with hate or disease. I look forward to that day.

There is a story in the Bible about the virgins who are awaiting the groom to come. Anxiously they prepare for that night. They have no idea when it will be. In Jewish customs of that day, the groom would ask the Father for the hand of his daughter in marriage. If the Father agreed, then the prospective groom would be asked over for dinner. The hopeful groom would then pour a glass of wine for the woman for whom he wished to marry. If she took the glass and drank it, she was accepting his wedding proposal. If not, he left without a word. The symbolism here is remarkable. We too, have to accept the marriage proposal....the Savior is the groom. By accepting Him, we must drink His wine.

Once the woman drank from her future husband's glass, he would leave. The reason was to go prepare a home for her. He would begin constructing their home. Always taking into account all of the things He thought she would love. The home was His gift to her! She not knowing when the construction would be finished, knew that when it was...he would come get her! It is said he would come like a theif in the night! How she awaited him:) So she prepared all that she would take, and had it ready. The most important item was a lamp and oil. The lamp was needed to see where they were going, since the groom would be coming at night.

In the Bible it talks about the virgins who didn't have their lamp and oil. They went around trying to borrow from others, to no avail. Therefore they missed the groom. But those who had their lamps ready, went on to be with the groom. This story is a true one of the Jewish customs of that day.

This story has always been a special one to me. I know that it is all symbolism, but to this very day...I keep lantern's, oil, and candles. When the lights go out, our home is the lightest one anywhere! When we lived in another town, the electricity had been off for a long time. Neighbors called us, thinking that we were the only ones who had lights! It was just my candles and lamps:) My daughters have caught onto my tradition of having ample candles...it is now a family tradition! I don't know if they ever understood why I kept these things...but if they read this, they will:)

Keep your lights burning:)