“The LORD spoke to Ahaz:
Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God; let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!”
God was pretty much telling Ahaz to ask for a sign. A huge sign. God wanted to tell Ahaz how everyone was going to be saved, and what the sign of this salvation would be. But Ahaz had lost hope and refused to ask for the sign. Isaiah goes on to say something along he lines of, “Fine. You don’t want to take God up on His offer and receive His sign? You people ask for signs all the time, and the one time God is offering, you don’t want it!”
Finally, Isaiah says ,“Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.”
So many times we ask God for signs. Signs on what is going to happen in our lives. Signs on what we should do. Signs on whether or not we are doing the right thing in life, or doing His will. And many times, we also ask for signs that He is real – that God does indeed exist. Most of us want to see some magnificent message in the sky, or we want God to come talk to us directly and tell us what to do. Sometimes this does happen, but that’s rare.
We often are like Elijah in the book of Kings(1 Kings 19:11-13), expecting God to be present in a violent wind, or the earthquake, or the fire. But rather, he’s comes in the silence. He’s there in the little things. So often we are so preoccupied with asking for signs of God’s glory, the signs we want to see, that we fail to see the signs that are before us and all around us. It’s not that God doesn’t want to give us signs that He is here for us and that He exists, he gives us signs all the time. We just need to learn from God on how to see them. We need to listen for the silence – that is where He is. And it’s in the little things where He will be.
Isaiah and Luke both tell us this today – that a virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, the Son of God who will one day save us all.
“Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High…’”
God came to us in a small way. He came as a baby, to the care of a humble couple from a backwater town in Galilee. This is how He comes to all of us. He comes to us through the little things, through those small blessings and graces that we receive every day. God comes to us through those ways we least expect – like the kindness of a stranger, or maybe through something your child says, the support and love of a spouse, the wisdom of a parent, and the advice of a friend. He comes to us in the little lessons throughout our day, those times when we need patience, acceptance, or simply need to take a minute and calm down. At those times, He’s there, giving us a little wink letting us know that life isn’t so bad, if we just look at it from a slightly different perspective.
When we’re down and out like Ahaz was, and feel we cannot take it anymore, God comes to us, and He tells us to “let me show you the way. Let me help you. Let me show you a sign that I’m here and it’s going to be OK.” But we have to be ready to see it. We have to want to see the sign. At those times, how do you react? Do you let God show you, or do you shy away from Him like Ahaz?
So many times God comes to us through other people or in things that happen to us, or opportunities that are presented to us, and too many times we simply turn Him away. So many times the world knocks us down to where we feel we’re not worthy of His help. So many times we’re blinded from His signs by the distractions of this world.
Other times we may recognize God’s signs and His will for us, but we choose to not accept it. We don’t want to get out of our comfort zone and take a chance, listen to what God has to say, and do His will knowing there is risk. At these times, we have a choice – we can choose to turn Him away, or we can be like Mary who said, “May it be done to me according to your word.”
This world is full of lots of noise – like the winds, and earthquakes and fires that Elijah experienced so many millennia ago. We expect God to come to us through this noise and show us the sign, and tell us what to do. But that’s not how He works. We need to listen for Him in the silence. He comes to us often to save us from our afflictions and help us out in our trials, many times in ways we do not expect, but always in the way that’s best. But every once in a while, He comes to us in a subtle way and asks us to do something for Him, to do Him a favor. How we answer can have lasting effects on others and for our eternity. How do you answer?
