Signs
“This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest Heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”
Luke 2:12–15
Some years ago, M. Night Shyamalan produced a movie titled “Signs.” On the surface, it is an alien/science fiction film where mysterious crop circles serve as signs that point the way for safe landings for alien spacecraft. Below the surface, however, are a myriad of signs that spring to life around the story of an Episcopal priest who gave up his collar when his wife was killed in an accident. I will let you find out what happens from there, but it is not until the end of the film that one realizes how many signs there were that pointed to a way out of the clergyman’s misery.
There are many signs that start popping up at this point in the Advent story. Angels surface, a star emerges and the shepherds will confirm what the angels tells them by finding the child wrapped up in bands of cloth and lying in a manger. We follow the shepherds as they head into town, sheep in tow, looking for a manger and listening for a baby and check out His clothes when they find Him. If they match the description, then the signs confirm the messages of God.
Signs are important. I once lived along the Gulf Coast and came to enjoy blue crabs. If the “Live Blue Crab” sign was lit at my favorite fish market, I knew it was time to stop in and collect my share. The same goes for the Krispy Kreme “Hot Doughnuts Now” sign.
Signs not only invite us; they also warn us — like the three primary traffic signs: Stop, Wrong Way and Yield. Stop signs are there for obvious reasons. They protect us, allowing us to pause and can save our lives. A Stop sign at an intersection can keep us from being pummeled by an 18-wheeler.
Our lives are full of Stop signs. We might be moving in one direction and all goes well and then, something changes it all: a job loss, an unexpected report from the doctor, divorce papers, a hurricane or the death of a friend. These make us stop and consider our own lives: How are we using or abusing our lives?
The events around Jesus’ birth comprise one of God’s Stop signs. It was as though God was saying, “It is time to put things right, so everyone, hold on a minute and pay attention.” That is the reason for the prophecies. That is the reason for the Virgin, the star, the angels and so on. This birth was like no other. God used these signs to say “STOP!”
This Stop sign was the beginning of Christian understanding of the redemption of humankind. The great Church father, Athanasius of Alexandria, once wrote, “Christ became what we are that He might make us what He is.” This Stop sign is the place where we begin to consider how all the bad things can be put in order and all the wrong ways can be turned right.
That is where the Wrong Way sign comes in. I have, on more than one occasion, accidentally entered the wrong direction on a one-way street. Somewhere, I missed a prominently displayed Wrong Way sign and put my life in danger. Wrong Way signs are there for a reason. They tell us that we are obviously going the wrong way. Jesus sent several of them. These signs were sprinkled among His teachings, miracles and admonitions.
Jesus said a lot of lovely things, but we also need to remember that the first word we have recorded of His public ministry was simple: repent.[1] It was not love, follow or include, but repent — because Jesus knew that if we did not start by getting the yuck out of our lives, we would never get the love, follow and include business right.
Part of my ministry over the years has been to hold up Wrong Way signs to people — not necessarily in a judgmental or harsh way, but to bring clarity. Clarity to the wife who is being unfaithful to her husband, the child who is caught in a web of drugs, the executive who cannot turn loose the bottle or the parents who cannot let go of their anger. The point of the Wrong Way sign is to encourage humanity to repent, stop going in the wrong direction and take the right way to life, health, wholeness and salvation.
Over the years, I have had people close to me hold up Wrong Way signs when I did not see disaster coming. Sometimes I heeded the warning; sometimes I did not. If there is something that is crippling our daily lives or, worse, destroying our souls, Jesus’ word repent should be a welcome sign that turns us around in a much better direction.
Now, an important part of letting the Stop sign and the Wrong Way sign work is to follow the Yield sign. Yield signs can be a bit awkward. You’re left wondering, “Who goes first?” “How long do I wait?” The British have a sign that is a bit more direct: Give Way. To yield means to give way. In its fullness, it means we are not first in line, but last. It means we have to put ourselves aside and let someone else go before us. If everyone went first, there would not be enough patrolmen on the streets to take care of all the accidents.
The need to yield is essential in the Christian life. As Christians, when we are encouraged to yield; it means essentially to let go — to rest our faith in Christ. To observe God’s Stop sign, we have to yield to God’s command; the same goes for the Wrong Way sign. These signs are all important because they are pointing in the same direction back to God, back to the redemption, hope and finally salvation offered in Christ.
In the last line of the movie “Signs,” Morgan, the son of the doubting priest, Graham, is brought back from the brink of death after his father’s heartfelt and anguished prayer to God. As he clutches his son in tears, the boy looks up and says, “Did someone save me?” Graham realizes at that moment what is going on and he says, “Yeah, baby, I think someone did.”
Someone wants to save us, too. And it is precisely because of God’s love for us that God sends signs all the time: Stop, Wrong Way, Yield. These signs are there to help you, heal you, save you. Well?
A Question to Ponder as you Prepare Room for the Christ Child
What signs has God placed before you in recent days? Are you paying attention to them? Are you yielding to their protection? If not, why? If so, then where will you go next?
A Prayer
“I ask you, by the power of your most sweet name, and by your holy manhood’s mystery, to put away my sins and heal the languor of my soul, mindful only of your goodness, not of my ingratitude. Lord, may your good, sweet Spirit descend into my heart, and fashion there a swelling for himself. Amen.”
Aelred of Rievaulx, d. 1167[2]
[1]Matthew 4:17.
[2]Sister Rose de Lima, trans., For Christ’s Love: Prayers of St. Aelred in “2000 Years of Prayer,” Michael Counsell, comp. (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse, 1999), 118.
