THE MORAL OF THE STORY:God sees all our signs

“I find it highly significant that God first loves us. He doesn’t initiate a relationship with us based on what we do for Him. He initiates a relationship with us because He wants to. He invites us to love Him and return His love because He knows that is what our souls need. When we love Him, we find contentment, we are at peace.”

— DEBORAH NEWMAN

“You know how people used to put the little flag up on the side of their mailboxes to signal to the mailman that you had mail inside that needed to be picked up?” a friend asked me recently. “Well, I wish I had some sort of little flag or sign to put up that would signal to people that I had hurts inside and I needed to be hugged, or at least treated gently.” I spent time listening to this friend as she shared about the recent hurts in her life. I hugged her and let her cry. I told her that I was so sorry for the pain and that I wished I could make it all better, but that we both knew that’s not how it works.

I also told her that I’d help her in any way that I could but that I knew that God would help her in the right ways. Not only could God bring his love and peace to her soul, but he could give her the wisdom and guidance that she needed. I shared an example of how God worked through a painful time in my life that not only brought surprisingly positive changes, but that God filled me with unusual peace in the process.

I also told her that I thought her word picture was a great one, and that it would be wonderful if we had signs or buttons to wear that expressed when we needed extra patience or caring from others. Then we listed some of the signs that we’d seen around town that signaled a warning of some sort. We’d seen signs of caution about men working in trees, road work ahead, metal plates, uneven roads, and detours. My friend said she’d like a warning sign: “Life under construction, proceed with caution.”

While talking with her, I thought of an interesting and apparently effective custom I saw when I was in Poland two summers ago. Families in villages in the country paint blue stripes on the sides of their houses to signify that there is a daughter living in the house who has become of age to be courted. When young men see the stripes, they know that the young woman is old enough to be called upon. I saw several striped homes on an outing through the countryside.

We agreed that flags on mailboxes, signs on roadsides and stripes on houses served their own purposes but that we probably needed to focus on communicating our needs to the right people in the right way at the right time.

Meanwhile, we have a loving God who knows exactly how our hearts, souls and lives are faring under construction. Better yet, he knows how to give us the love, contentment, peace and wisdom we need for the process.

And you can quote me on that.