Signs

And this will be a sign for you:
you will find a baby wrapped in cloths,
and lying in a manger. Luke 2:12

Does God really give us signs today like he gave the shepherds? I think so.


If only God would give us a sign! Like the cartoon above, the true spiritual picture is one of being surrounded with overwhelming manifestations of God's love, concern, and direction for our lives. We do not see his signs because we come to him with our own set of expectations. We want things our own way.

God is all around us. He is working behind the curtain of our life in all its multiple dimensions. But do we see him?

Earth's crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "Aurora Leigh" VII.821-22

Sadly, the "signs" God sends us are not always what we are looking for. When we don't get our "bush afire with God", we assume God isn't interested and settle for "plucking blackberries."

Our problem is we want God to do for us what it is we want him to do. When he doesn't comply, we sigh, and wonder where is God?

What are the clear, tangible signs of his love, care, compassion, guidance and direction in our lives? Can we identify the signs he has surrounded us with? If not, maybe we need to spend the remaining days of this year asking God to open our eyes to see Him at work all around us. Let 's not settle for blackberries when every common bush is afire with God!

Oswald Chambers says it like this,

We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the culture of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never allow that the haphazard is anything less than God's appointed order, and be ready to discover the Divine deSIGNS anywhere.

As we finish 2007 and approach 2008, may the prayer of our heart be this well-known praise song...

Open the eyes of my heart Lord,
Open the eyes of my heart.
I want to see you.


*The above cartoon was first seen on Debbie Kaufman's blog.