Signs, and Wonder!

by Kelly Knowlden

I remember those days when as a young man trying to figure out life and what my part was in it, I wished that God would be more demonstrative in His statements telling me what vocation to pick, where to go to college and who to marry. “If only God would drop a sign on my head that said ‘DO THIS,’ I would be sure to not miss His direction.”

The shepherds were on a routine night of work. They may have been wondering whether they want- ed to be in the sheep-watching industry for the rest of their life, whether they could change vocations, or maybe thinking about whether the pretty girl in the village would be a likely wife. God DID drop a sign on their “heads” in the form of a heavenly visitation. They were basically told: “Here is what you are to do: Go into the town of David and find a baby lying in a food trough. That will be the sign of the long-awaited Messiah.”

Then the wonder of the moment was gone. All other questions concerning their future suddenly took second place. “We must go to Bethlehem and see this thing that the Lord has told us about.” They were impelled by the message of the angels to act on what they knew and to trust that God would fill in the blanks.

We do not get angelic visitations (though their intrusion into our lives is probably more common-place than we often think. See Heb. 13:2, Psalm 91:11) However, we have a different kind of “sign.” In II Peter 1:19, we are told that “we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place...” The answers we want, or our high school students want, about our lives is found in pursuing what is right in front of us that has been revealed, all the while believing God will fill in the blanks. As we are being faithful in the work we have to do, and the relationships that are immediate (not virtual), and in reading the “more sure Word,” God has promised to give us direction as we wait in wonder at the sign of the Baby in Bethlehem!