GOD GIVES US “SIGNS”
(May 20)
“So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, ‘Unless you people see (ἴδητε) signs and wonders you will not believe (οὐ μὴ πιστεύσητε).’ The official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was living. So he asked them the hour when he began to mend, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.’ The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live’; and he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.” (Jn 4: 46-54)
This “official” begs the Lord to “come down” (to his house, presumably), and heal his son. Christ fulfils half of this request: He does heal the man’s son, but does not “come down” to his house. So, Christ does this sign, which, as He observes, the “official“ and his people needed in order to believe, – but He does it His way, and not precisely in the way requested by the “official.”
Are there ways in which the Lord’s word “heals” and does “signs” and “miracles” in my life, – but not in the ways I envisioned or requested in my prayers? Yes. But I notice these only later, sometimes much later, after the Lord has done His healing His own way. I am also still learning, hopefully always learning, to read the “signs” He has put up all over the place, in the created world, which speak of Him and are meant to be recognized by us, to fortify our faith. Time itself is put into motion on the Fourth Day of creation “for signs and seasons” (Gen 1:14), so time itself is symbolic, containing “signs” of the mysteries of God. For example, the cycles of night and day, of our sleeping and rising from sleep, etc., which symbolize “the sign of the Prophet Jonah” that is given to everyone, that is the Resurrection. The time of the healing of the official’s son also becomes a sign that fortifies his faith. Thank You, Lord, for teaching us Your will, while also listening to ours, in our time, and in the subtle and humble ways that You do.
