Sailors

"Red at night, sailors delight. Red in the morning sailors take warning."

I like to joke that I should've been born at sea. For as long as I can remember the idea of sailing has fascinated me. Maybe it's because my dad was in the Navy. From the time I was young Dad would give me directions using 'port' and 'starboard' instead of 'left' and 'right' because the nautical terms made way more sense to me. Left and right tended to confuse me. Yeah, I was a weird kid.

Anyways at some point I learned the adage above and I was so excited when I found this same sign talked about in the Bible. It's in Matthew 16:1-4.
"The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
He replied, 'When evening comes, you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red" and in the morning, "Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast." You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.' Jesus then left them and went away."

Now the sign of Jonah that Jesus was talking about was a prophesy of His death and resurrection. But it got me thinking about the signs that we look for.

I already told you that left and right used to confuse me horribly. Fact is I'm so directonally (I think I made that word up) challenged it's ridiculous. I kid you not, I can get lost in parking lots. So I'm constantly using a GPS or looking for street signs to help me find where I'm going. Signs can be very helpful whether it's to tell the weather, help you find your way around or other signs we look for like people's body language or tone of voice to tell us what mood they're in.

But what kind of spiritual signs do we miss? I'd say that most of the time we aren't asking God for a miraculous sign like the Pharisees and Sadducees were (and hopefully we're not doing it to test God out of spite or because we doubt that He's the Messiah like they were) but we ask for other kinds of signs. Maybe we look at our bills and can't see why God isn't providing a sudden influx of cash to pay them, but we forget about the fact that there's been food on our table every night, even if it sometimes comes through the kindness of others. Isn't that a sign of His provision? Or maybe you've skipped meals but you're still eating enough to be alive to read this. That's a sign too.

We ask for intervention in the life of a loved one but when that person begins to turn a corner we simply sigh and wonder how long it will last before they turn back to the addiction. Maybe what we should do is thank God for the work He is doing in that person's life, and thank Him for this sign of change. If it lasts, praise God! If it doesn't, praise God for the hope it gives us of what could happen again, of who that person can become.

Perhaps it's a prayer for a spouse or a child because of the loneliness that haunts our heart. Loneliness is a hard enemy to fight against. But instead of focusing on the loneliness perhaps we should be grateful for the people He has put in our lives already- friends, family, nieces and nephews to spoil or children at church we can work with through ministries like nursery or Sunday School. And we can
focus on learning to be complete in Christ. Friends, I urge you to remember that no human, not the spouse of your dreams or the child you've longed for, will ever be capable of filling all the holes in your heart. They are human and as much as you may love them, part of being human means they'll disappoint you at times. They will not make you complete or whole- only God can do that.

I don't know what you're praying for today. I don't know what sign you're looking for but today I encourage you to focus less on the signs that you're used to seeing and more on the miracles God puts in front of you every day.