And this shall be a sign…

You see them all over town. It seems like every stoplight is manned by someone with a homemade sign, hoping to get some money from you. These folks seem to have more religion per capita than any other group in the country: every sign expresses their wish that God will bless you.
But I saw a new twist on this ubiquitous sight last week. I pulled up to an intersection to see a guy holding…nothing. Oh, he was pretending to hold up a sign, but there was nothing there. He was awfully amused, too, shrugging his shoulders and grinning a mostly-toothless smile as he pointed at the sign that wasn’t there. I had to smile, too. Did he misplace his sign? Was he suffering from writer’s block? I know from experience that some days it’s hard to come up with just the right words to fill your space; maybe you could just imagine there’s something really great written here, okay?
One of the best things about God is that He shows up...even when I’m not totally present myself. There have been many Sundays when I’ve been driving to church early in the morning and said to my wife, “I don’t feel like I’ve got much today,” or “This is gonna be a real short lesson. I have no idea what I’m trying to say.” Invariably, when we’re heading to lunch a few hours later, she will ask, “So how were your classes today?” And I say, “It turned out great! The people seemed to really enjoy it!”
Even on the days when I’m holding my little imaginary sign, God fills in the blanks and keeps me from being clueless, speechless and worthless. I have to relearn the same lesson almost every week: even when I can’t do something, God can. It delights and surprises me every time. See, when I think I have all the answers, I don’t leave any room for God to show up. But when I just get out of the way, He can write something beautiful. He just needs a blank canvas. There’s an old saying: “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like.” For me, it’s more like: “I don’t know much about teaching...but I know who likes me.”
And the One who likes me is able to make something from nothing.