I have had the pleasure of recognizing many signs during my life. God has used road signs, folder spills and even racoons to send me thoughts and directions. I have made many “life decisions” after deep prayer and then opening up for God's direction. I have never seen a thing in the tea leaves, but then I hardly ever drink tea. God speaks to us in a particular language by manipulating things we are familiar with... in noteworthy juxtapositions that we can hardly ignore. I should write a book about it. But suffice to say that I do not believe in accidents or coincidences...
Usually, when somebody else tells me about a sign they have experienced, I feel like they are nuts. Everybody's connection and relationship with God is unique and different. I only know what has happened to me. Friends have told me of literal angels appearing, or visions of spirits or a “giant eye.” Mine are not like that. They are usually allegories drawn from nature. Or bizarre groupings or sudden appearances of symbolic features on the landscape, which if they are applied, are amazingly germane to some prayer concern of mine.
I have probably misread some, or seen significance in some random things that were not God-sent, for sure. But several times during our marriage, God has shown my wife and I a path through some difficulty after we prayed together about it. I'm talking important things, like jobs and homes and relocating across the state. And he has often used actual “signs.”
There are astrological interpretations of the significance of these celestial rendezvous, the Moon being the mother, Jupiter the father and ruler, and Saturn the planetary representative for duty and justice and wisdom. Who knows... lots of possibilities could be extrapolated from that. But as soon as I saw these three together, I thought about the “Wise Men,” who came from the far east to find and pay tribute to the Christ Child. Again, God speaks to us in terms we are familiar with. He told the Persian astrologers that a king was coming in Judea... a possible savior of the world, as Jupiter (royalty) was passing through Leo (Lion of Judah)... Somehow a virgin was involved, because Jupiter then was associated with Virgo. It was a huge, nightly billboard pointing to a messiah in or near Jerusalem. Familiar with ancient Jewish traditions and texts they knew, the “wise men” knew that if HE was really coming, he would be born in Bethlehem.
Ironically, perhaps by design, the Jews were forbidden to study astrology, and did not get the memo. But Gentiles were obsessed with the stars, and God knew it, and He spoke to them in symbols they understood. And they came from thousands of miles away to see the Messiah. These constellations were such topics of controversy, the Parthian Kings, some with Jewish ancestry, had been overthrowing one another, claiming the signs were validating them. But today we do not even know their names. Legends still persist to this day in Iran about John the Baptist and his cousin, Jeshua, and the impact they had on Persian Magi who came back with amazing stories. It all started with well-placed, fairly easily interpreted signs.
Anyway, I ignored the Moon/Jupiter/Saturn gathering, not knowing what to make of it. But Americans might read the astronomical events as affirmation of a world leader and his bride, persons who possess wisdom and discipline and who will achieve justice and prosperity... not a bad caption for the Trumps.
But strictly hokus pokus...
But I have no idea what that means.
When the news broke about the President and his wife having the Covid virus, I said a special prayer at breakfast. We just trusted the Trumps, and our whole country in fact, into God's hands. The God who made this wonderful, beautiful world knows all about it. His Grace is sufficient.
Just a few minutes after breakfast, I was looking out one of the east windows, and about to remark that the deer would be changing their feeding habits, with the increase of predation in the fall. About that time a six-point buck climbed up the mesa into our back yard. He stayed and grazed a long time. To me, it was God saying. “Yes, everything is under control. Enjoy this young buck, without blemish, my perfect messenger.”
Just a few days later, I noticed the semi-annual alignment of the rising sun with the skyline of Temple, Texas. Solar Pigstace was just the precursor for this beautiful sight, often obscured in the autumn by fog or clouds. But not this year... a year of signs.
This world... and the Universe, are like a humongous clock, built to perfection, and even the doings of man fit into it in a marvelous way... or at least sometimes they can... perhaps when built according to God's Will. And I have to believe, that God would not send so much assurance, so much comfort to my conscious mind, if it was some kind of empty promise. The signs have been positive and encouraging. The opposite of the lies and hysteria on Network Television. Perhaps the same kinds of signs that lured the Wise men to Judea are still being broadcast today. When spring flowers burst from the rocks in September, when all of Nature testifies of God's perfect plan, and even silly wive's tales verify hope in the future, why not just go with it?
When God allowed “Cyrus the Great” to take control of Persia, it was an essential part of His plan to restore the Jews to Israel. Cyrus should be pronounced with a hard K, so the great Persian ruler was actually Kurush. Cyrus supposedly meant “sun.” So the Persian ruler was associated with the center and power and light of the Universe. And in fact for a time he served that very purpose. He was not a Jew, not a leader of the Hebrews... yet he has been remembered for millennia by them as one anointed, a liberator, a re-builder of their worship and way of life. It was during his third year in power that God gave amazing visions to Daniel, who must have somehow let him know of their content. He ultimately set the Jews free to return to Jerusalem and financed their revival. He reversed a great injustice, and prepared Israel for the return of its Messiah.
This counter-intuitive method is an established trend in God's political strategy, to often use a great leader, even a pagan one to be his agent. This was much the case in the great achievements of Constantine. Signs played a large role in these men's thoughts and deeds. They were powerful, unstoppable, disrupters of the status quo. Constantine saw a giant cross in the sky, and read “In this sign conquer.” And he did, maybe more obediently than a life-long disciple of Christ. Certainly more ruthlessly. But he changed the course of history.
From Moses till today, God has chosen to use unlikely, uninitiated messengers. His anointed leaders are rarely from the establishment, but are more often from obscure or unglamorous origins. He would pick a Peter over a Paul any day... and if he picks a Paul, he will be a broken, repentant one. And when he picks his man, no man, no woman can stand against him. When God has some big thing in mind... like setting the captives free, or salvation of mankind... or Christianizing all of Europe... he picks a strong, almost inhumanly resolute person... someone who will follow through, and not run from trouble like Noah or David.
Moses had a burning bush, and water out of a ROCK, and a staff that turned into a snake... he enjoyed lots of amazing and bizarre signs. It is doubtful that he would ever have risen to power without God's help and insistence, guided by signs. Peter, an impetuous fisherman, was the “rock” upon whom Jesus said he would build his church. Boorish and unschooled, he is still considered by many Christians to be the founding Apostle of the Faith. He was also shown amazing signs... walking on water was only one. Jesus gathered a whole gang of these kinds of men... working men, only a few of his disciples were men of letters. Action was paramount, the parables and miraculous accounts could be written down later. Talk is cheap. God loves an action man. His chosen leaders are often not men of words or gifted in speech. But they go. They do. And they usually offend everybody when they do.
Moses died without many friends. Most of the Prophets did. Doing God's bidding is basically the “foolish” confounding the “wise,” and can be very unpopular at the time; Justice to be imposed on a dark, corrupt world. Power and authority stood on its head. It's not a job for a sissy. Not a task for the insecure.
So what if Donald Trump is this kind of leader? He certainly fits the mold. If so, he will be re-elected and totally exasperate his enemies. He still has work to do. He may have no idea that his success is not him, but a greater power... who is, well, using him. No doubt God has recruited him in this quest with signs he could read- as clearly as those which prompted great iconoclasts of the past. Maybe someday he will share those signs, which put a profane, ungodly hedonist, oafish and course in speech, in a great struggle, perhaps the greatest battle to restore America's moral compass.
P.S.: Days past as I pondered whether or not to post this blog. Signs for me may have been meant for no one else. Perhaps it was all too personal, and worse, subjective. Then election day finally came. The sun came up, glorious as if for the first time.
It easy to take heart, when you believe. It is easy then to dismiss most coincidences, and see meaning in so many otherwise mundane things. It easy to imagine that the God of this universe is speaking... through all of them- if we choose to listen... to read and receive these wonderful signs. AND HERE'S THE BEAUTIFUL PART... MANY OF THEM ARE OUT THERE EVERY DAY!
