Recently, my 6 year old has taken to showing off her reading skills by reading road signs as we traverse from place to place on a road trip. I ask her to look out for certain signs to be helpful and to read certain signs when they come up. As she does, she inevitably misses a sign here and there and misreads some others. Sometimes, that’s how we are with God’s signs.
God sends us signs that are meant to give us hope. Sometimes we end up misreading those signs. We think God’s signs are there to beat us up or send us away from Him. Sometimes we miss the sign all together. But often times, signs are meant to give us hope. It’s a big deal when we’re traveling and we see the first sign that tells us how many more miles it is to our destination – even if that destination is a long ways off. The “open” sign in the window gives us hope that we can go in and get what we need.
Over the next three weeks we will have a short 3 part sermon series on some of the signs that God sends us of His grace: the sign of the plumb line in Amos 7, the sign of the meal in Jesus’ Feeding of the 5000 in Mark, and finally, the sign of the rainbow in the account of Noah and the flood. A plumb line, a meal, and a rainbow. Each of these signs in and of themselves are mini-parables of God’s grace for us: the grace of someone who can delineate right and wrong for us, the grace of someone who multiplies our meager gifts to take care of others, and the grace of someone who promises to withhold punishment.
As we look deep into these signs, consider how they bring hope to your life. What hope is brought to you if you know that there is a standard of right and wrong that isn’t left up to you alone? What hope is brought to you if you know your gifts are not only your gifts, but that those gifts can be multiplied? What hope is brought to you if you’re promised that punishment is withheld? I think there can be deep hopes that come about in us when we consider those three signs of hope – and even when we look beyond them to all of the other signs that God gives us that we can hope in. I’m excited to start this series off this week as we seek to not miss God’s signs, not misread them, but to see the hope that comes about because of them.