Obedience and Fruit
The Budding Fig Tree
From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.
Matthew 24:32-33
Fig trees lose their leaves in winter, so new shoots were the countryside's unmistakable signal that summer was coming. Jesus points at one during his teaching on the last days.
Jesus expects his people to read seasons. Not to calculate dates, which he immediately rules out, but to live with eyes open, recognizing that history is going somewhere and the door is nearer than it was.
Be a student of the season without becoming a predictor of the day. Let nearness produce holiness and hope, not charts and fear.