Have you noticed that the number of signs around us seems to be increasing?

   There are signs virtually everywhere announcing any and everything. Along the highway there are giant billboards that advertise soft drinks, food and truck stops. There are even small signs that announce fresh fruit or vegetables that will be for sale a few miles up the road. Sometimes there are so many signs that they get in the way of each other. There are federal laws about the placement of billboards but that doesn't seem to help. Local communities have laws too about signs that protrude above buildings and proliferate the landscape. Portable signs seem to sit in every yard along commercial strips with arrows and flashing lights announcing one product or another.

   In Las Vegas and other night spots giant neon lit signs announce the grand casinos. Signs are all around us. There are signs made of plastic, wood and bright lights, but there are other signs too. There are signs of the times. Metal detectors at schools, armed soldiers at airports, and mail carriers who wear rubber gloves give us signs of the times. These signs are bigger than billboards and flash more brilliantly than Neon lights, yet there are many people who cannot see them every day. Jesus, speaking to his disciples in Matthew 16:3 said there are many people who are learned at predicting the weather and the change of seasons but can ye not discern the signs of the times. The signs of the times are the indicators all around us that calibrate the social climate in which we live. What if God wanted to send the world a message, would he put a sign!

   There are some clever billboards going up all over the country that purport to be from God. They say things like, Don't make me come down there!-God! Is that the way God would he put up a billboard? Would he buy a television commercial and interrupt your favorite broadcast with a message from heaven? If God wanted to send the world a sign what could He do? The bible says God did want to send the world a sign of hope. He announced that his sign would be the simple birth of a little child that would be born in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. The birth of this child would be God's sign, brighter than the brightest neon light, that hope for a better world existed. Just as the rainbow was God's sign to Noah, so is the birth of Christ God's sign to the world that the hope of peace and joy everlasting continues.

   As Christians, we see Gods signs all around us. We especially see the significance of the important sign that we received one night in Bethlehem. God said, And this shall be your sign! We receive that as a true sign of Gods love for the world and give Him the praise and the glory! Today, look for a sign that God is with you in your endeavors. If don't see the sign, don't act.