Have you ever taken a wrong turn because you didn’t see a sign?

  Most of us have missed a turn or two in life because we didn’t see signs that were clearly posted for us to see, but somehow we missed it. The reasons were numerous: we were distracted; it was hidden, or were looking in the wrong direction. There are few times when we made bad turns even though we saw not just one sign but many of them but we ignored them.

  There were several day when we realized that we were feeling unusually dizzy and often faint but we dismissed them. We should not have been surprised when we received a less than favorable medical report because there were signs.

  For several weeks we received bad reports in school because we failed to turn in assignments, failed tests and performed purely. We should not have been surprised when we received poor reports at the end of the period because there were signs.

  When everyone else on the job received raises, commendations and promotions but we were constantly written up for being late, showing poor performance and less than admirable work habits, we should have seen it coming. Our firing should not have been a surprise. There were signs.

  Are you surprised that you are constantly broke? Why? There were signs that they day would have more bills than money in the bank. We saw them but we kept spending.

  When you saw what you thought were little flying ants in your house last spring, you ignored them. So why were you surprised to know that that you now need major repairs because your house has termites? There were signs.

  There are signs in the weather that should prepare us for the changing of the seasons, but often we ignore them.

  There are signs that show us when there only one way and warn us when we are going the wrong way. So we shouldn’t be surprised when we are faced with oncoming traffic in life. There were signs.

  Last year CNN news carried the news article about the woman who had trouble with her son who was developing criminal habits. She made the boy a giant sign and made him stand on a busy intersection of the city and hold it high for an entire week, "I want to go prison and ruin by life just like my daddy,” – It was her way of sending him a message that he would never forget.

  What would God need to do to send the world a sign of his love? He created a garden and filled it with great fruits and easy living but didn’t get that sign. He opened a walkway through the sea for Israel and fed them for 40 years in the wilderness, but they didn’t get that sign. Even when He blessed them with miracles: made the sun stand still, brought down the walls of Jericho or raised the dead, they still didn’t get the sign.

    God decided to send the world a sign so big and so obvious that it could not be ignored. He announced that his sign would be the birth of a little child and placed in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes.

   As Christians, we recognize that the Christmas reminds us more than any other time that God is with us in our personal dilemmas. He sends us sign we cannot ignore. It’s a sign that even Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles could read without Braille. It’s a sign that God loves us enough to give the world His only son. That’s a sign that even a blind man can see.