Are You Missing the Signs?

Keep Left.

I had one of those days. Seem to have a lot lately. Rushed. List upon list of things to do. It was later in the day when the incident happened. Just when the traffic was starting to get congested from everyone leaving work and going home. I had just dropped off one of my granddaughter’s birthday presents.  Then I was heading off to a different daughter’s house for dinner.

Without thinking, just basically driving robotically, I had nearly reached the stop sign at the intersection. “Oh no!” I said out loud. Not this intersection. It is one of the deadliest intersections you can try and cross, especially at peak hour.

I looked behind me in the rear-view mirror. No one. So, I started to reverse to then try and turn around and go another route. There was nothing in the way, or so I thought…

As I was slowly reversing and praying no one would come up behind me I felt a bump. I stopped reversing and put the car into drive. As I drove forward a little, I saw what I had bumped into. A now bent over KEEP LEFT sign!

I saw a movement behind me – a car coming up towards me.  I kept the car in drive and drove once again to the dreaded STOP sign. Praying really desperately I accelerated for it and made it halfway across. Pulling into the gap in the traffic I drove down the street going in the opposite direction that I wanted to go.

Phew. I’ll just do a U-turn up further in a safer place.

I felt so stupid. Where did that KEEP LEFT sign come from? I did not see it before.

Do we sometimes NOT see the signs that God sends us either?

In Matthew 16:1-4 Jesus confronts a group of Pharisees and Sadducees who were asking for a sign from heaven – a miracle. Jesus points out that they can read the signs of the weather, but stubbornly won’t recognize the signs He has already performed.

Are we like the Pharisees sometimes? Are we looking for certain miracles or signs on demand but not seeing what is already right in front of our face, what may have already occurred, like looking behind us in the rear-view mirror?

I pray that God opens the eyes of my heart to see Him in all things. To see His goodness. His provision. His KEEP LEFT signs. Whatever He sends my way to walk this road I am on towards His Eternal Life that he has for me. For you.

It reminds me of a story about a man stuck in his house as a flood is raging. He did not heed the warnings to evacuate. He prays to God to come and help him. The water is lapping at the front door. Some people come along in a rowboat and ask, “Do you need help?”

“No”, was his reply. “I’m waiting for God.”

Then he needs to hop on top of the roof of his house for the floodwater is advancing. A helicopter comes along and the man with a rope and a winch yells down to say we are here to help you. He yells back over the fury of the wind. “I’m fine I’m waiting for God.”

The floodwater continues to rise, and the man had nowhere to go. As the man drowns, God comes to him and before God can say anything the man furiously yells, “Why did you not come and help me?”

God calmly states, “I did. I first sent you a warning. Then I sent a rowboat. Then I sent a helicopter. Who else do you think sent them to you?”

Do we read the signs God sends us?

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups. If you would like more information please click HERE.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

How often do you miss the signs God sends you? Have you noticed these in hindsight and then how have you followed them?

What can you do to be more open, more alert to God speaking into your life?