Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Friday and Sabbath, May 29 and 30, 2026
Yesterday afternoon Shelley and I were taking a brief late-afternoon walk when I glanced at the sky. Shelley said, “Didn’t your mom tell you once that those were tornado clouds?” “Right,” I said. “The ones that are lumpy underneath.”
But we weren’t worried, partly because we’ve often seen these clouds here in the Pacific Northwest, and never once (in our presence) has a tornado spiraled down from them.
However, one windy summer afternoon on the south edge of Redfield, South Dakota, my dad and sister and I were doing a cleanup job at a little fairgrounds. The county agricultural agent had stopped by to give us instructions. He pointed to the sky and said, “Tornado clouds. You’ve got to watch out.” The Dakota clouds looked more lumpy and menacing than the ones in my photo, and the wind was certainly picking up. I remember staring at a nearby woven-wire fence and deciding that if a tornado happened along, I would fall to the ground, roll up next to it, claw it tight with both hands and hope for the best.
As it turns out, a tornado did happen that South Dakota afternoon, about ten miles southwest of our farm, but we saw nothing more than cloud lumps. And yesterday afternoon, after a calm glance at the photo-clouds, Shelley and I meandered peacefully on our way, and even made a leisurely phone call as we walked.
Context is important, right? Lumpy clouds are lumpy clouds, and if they happen in August on the Great Plains, you do indeed have to be careful, especially if they show up in areas known as “tornado alleys.” But in the skies near Seattle, they’re mostly from a non-tornado cause.
So what’s the “parable point” here? You and I need to be such careful observers of context that we’re not panicked by what seems to be dangerous but is not. When Jesus described the events of the last days, He made sure to give context:
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (Matthew 24:6 NKJV)
In other words, don’t freeze in panic when a traumatic event happens. It’s literally, and most likely, “not the end of the world.” Instead, keep an eye on what the Bible says about Jesus’ return. Make sure you know the context.
For a lot of detailed, context-providing prophecies about Jesus’ return, click the link below:
https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/second-coming-jesus-christ