Red Sun in the Morning

Every summer when I was a little boy we would spend two weeks of our annual vacation at my aunt and uncle's camp on Lake Champlain, in Vermont.  It was a wonderful place called Elm Point.  From the front porch you could see across the lake to New York and the majestic Adirondack Mountains.  Many an evening we would sit and watch the beautiful August sunsets.  I think it was there on the lake that I first learned that ancient ditty about the weather which goes:  "Red sun at night, sailor's delight.  Red sun in the morning, sailor's take warning."

My younger brother Bob and I would be very excited if the sunset was full of red hues, because that would mean the next day we would have good weather and would be able to swim.  And although we saw far fewer sunrises than sunsets, when we did see a reddened sky in the early morning, we would make sure we took a swim as soon after breakfast as possible, because there was bound to be rain later in the day.

Watching the signs in the natural order which point to the future is nothing new.  It probably goes back to the earliest days of human existence.  Jesus famously talks about fig trees at one point, and observes that when their tender shoots appear, people know that summer is fast approaching.

I saw yet another story this weekend in the newspaper about the record number of manatees who have died this winter and early spring here in Southwest Florida due to red tide.  One of the reasons for increased red tide appears to be a higher phosphate content in the water.  Phosphates that come from the run offs created by human use.  I can't help but wonder if it is another warning, like the red suns of my youth.  Is it another warning that we need to be taking much better care of the earth?  Rising sea levels, seemingly greater amounts of catastrophic weather patterns . . . the list goes on.

I don't mean these are supernatural signs sent by God.  I mean these are signs from the fragile ecosystems of the earth itself.  The planet can only handle so much abuse, and then it starts to break down.  We can ignore the signs, or like wise sailors, we can take warning.