Advent Visions

December 9:   Signs

My wife has an uncanny ability to find hearts wherever she is.   Heart-shaped rocks.  Heart-shaped leaves on the ground.  Heart-shaped clouds in the sky.   Heart-shaped holes in a tree stump.   For her, these omnipresent hearts are a sign that there is love to be found everywhere in the world.   (She also has an amazing ability to find four-leaf clovers!)       Many of us look for signs to assure us that the world is not random and meaningless, but full of significance.     We often seek signs at crossroads moments in our lives.  Or after a death or loss we may get a sign helping us to believe that our beloved lives on in another dimension of love.   We want to believe that the whole world is full of presence--an energy or a spirit at the heart of the universe that is always seeking to draw us in.  

Scripture's ancient lore delights in describing the incessant signs which are scattered around the earth by the Creator.   One of the first was the rainbow, set in the sky at the end of a terrible deluge.   Forever the bow in the sky would be a sign of hope and promise, a reminder that the intentions of God are benevolent and that there will never be a storm or trial so great that there won't be hope in a new day.    Accompanying today's message is a photo taken by Jack Hotchkiss in Hebron, Connecticut.   It captures two signs of grace:  a heart-shaped tree against an arching rainbow.     I don't think that these little gifts are  mere coincidences, as some would claim.  It is my hope--not only in Advent's time of expectation, but always--that we are given signs to encourage us.   They are little "post-it notes" from God, who waits with joy as we discover these signs.    

SIGNS


It was just the bright flash
of a cardinal in a bare tree
that made my heart leap
on a dreary day.
I read the signs of my life
in grace notes
everywhere:
a heart in the center of a hickory nut,
a rainbow's ribbon,
a hawk lifting up my eyes,
a forgotten song stirring a memory
a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths.
Always, everywhere,
there are holy signs
bearing my name.
I watch for them.