Category Archives: Hearing from God

Against All Odds

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When I was a single career girl in 1968, I owned a red hard-top convertible Corvette and lived in an apartment with 3 friends on the near-north side of Chicago. Although it wasn’t a dangerous neighborhood, when walking home from distant parking spots we kept our eyes open.

One Sunday afternoon I arrived home briefly and just needed to run inside to pick up a few things before driving off again. Incredibly, there was an empty parking space right in front of our building. With the car so close, I figured I could safely leave the top down during my quick in-and-out.

But when I came back 10 minutes later, my Corvette was gone. It was difficult to believe someone had stolen it in so short a time in broad daylight, but they had. I filed a police report, but the officer said, “A Corvette? They’re chopped up within minutes. You’ll never see it again.”

Lo and behold, 4 days later, the police found it! The convertible top was still down, and it was parked in front of a gun factory with a “Now Hiring” sign out front. The police wouldn’t have noticed it except for the screwdriver sticking out of its ignition hole. The officers hid, waited for the driver, and nabbed him when he tried to get in the car.

I got my Corvette back with only minor damage and classified it as direct intervention from God. Because of his arrangement of circumstances, the impossible had happened.

Last month, the impossible happened again. This time it was Louisa’s 16 year old Honda Accord. She parked it outside her Chicago apartment after returning from work, and when she went back to it, it was gone. Wondering if she’d forgotten exactly where she’d parked, she asked friends to drive her up and down the streets, just to be sure. But it was nowhere.

She filed a police report, but the officer said, “They steal them for parts. We’ll probably find the empty shell abandoned under the el tracks in a day or two.”

Lo and behold, a week later Louisa got a call saying her car had been found, parked illegally in front of a fire plug. Police had it towed to an impound and told her where to pick it up.

“Is it damaged?” she said.

“We didn’t check.”

Incredibly, it was in perfect condition, even the ignition. Although the car’s contents were disheveled, nothing was missing except a five dollar bill. When Louisa called me with the good news she said, “It was God for sure.”

I agree.

Sometimes we feel distant from the Lord, as if he’s not hearing our prayers and has no concern for our needs. At other times we can’t get over his startling activity on our behalf. The trick is to think back to those times of his dramatic involvement during the moments when he seems distant.

True then?

True now.

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings…” (Hebrews 10:22)

What did we miss?

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None of us likes to be interrupted in the middle of an important conversation. I remember a moment like that when 3 of us were having a discussion and a 4th came in, striding up to our group.

“Hi, guys,” she said, disrupting the flow of ideas and forcing a subject change. It was the perfect example of being on two different wave lengths, and we stared at her while mentally trying to switch gears. We never got to finish the first conversation, and I fought resentment about that for a long time.

This morning in church our pastoral intern gave a thought-provoking sermon about the transfiguration. Stirred to learn more, I went home and studied the accounts told in 3 of the 4 Gospels.

On one side of the equation were Peter, James and John. On the other, Jesus, Moses and Elijah. The 3 disciples apparently recognized these Old Testament saints, in itself a miracle, and cautiously approached the 3 other-worldly conversationalists as a discussion was already in progress. Scripture doesn’t say if they overheard the words, but it does tell us what was being talked about: Jesus’ upcoming departure from the earth.

This was, most likely, an animated dialogue. Moses and Elijah might have been expressing joy in learning their Savior would soon be returning to paradise (where they lived), after 33 years as a human. Or maybe they were getting information about the upcoming crucifixion, mourning over the suffering Jesus might have been describing. Or they might have been learning of the resurrection. It’s probable they were all praying, too, since Jesus had told Peter, James and John ahead of time that that’s what they were going to do.

In any case, Peter interrupted this momentous conversation with an inane and inappropriate suggestion: “Let’s set up 3 tents so you can all live here indefinitely!”

I can just see Jesus, Moses and Elijah as they stopped talking and turned simultaneously toward Peter much like my friends and I did when we were interrupted. But unbeknownst to Peter, James and John, a very powerful 4th person was about to enter the conversation: God the Father.

Scripture says that while Peter was still talking, God interrupted him. In a cloak of cloud so dense it frightened them, he forcefully silenced Peter by saying, “Listen to my Son!”

In other words, “Stop babbling, Peter! Don’t you realize the importance of this once-in-a-lifetime conversation? Hush up and listen!” God’s chiding was effective, and the 3 instantly (and silently) dropped face-to-the-dirt for the remainder of the event.

But what about that interrupted conversation between Jesus, Moses and Elijah? Had Peter ruined it for them? Did they ever get to finish it? And if Peter, James and John had quietly stood by listening in on that remarkable exchange rather than interrupting it, what might have happened next?

(…concluded tomorrow)

“While [Peter] was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’“ (Matthew 17:5)

Do I understand?

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These days when Jack and I walk the woodsy streets of our neighborhood, many of the trees are marked with hieroglyphics in red paint. Not every tree. Just some, both mature ones and saplings. One tree might have a dot on it, the next a line. Several have X’s, and a few are double-X-ed. Hundreds of different trunks are marked.

Trying to figure it out was impossible, and the marks seemed random… until I got an email from our home association with the explanation. Apparently our trees are threatening the power lines strung among them, and the red marks constitute detailed instructions to tree trimmers. Arborists will take careful note of each symbol before revving up their chain saws, because without obeying the marks, trimming wouldn’t accomplish the goal of the electric company, which is to clear its lines.

Life is full of important symbols, many of which can be understood without language, just like the tree markings. Take road signs, for example. In foreign countries if we understand the universal traffic symbols, we can still read the signs without having to know the language.

But what about signs and symbols we can’t understand?

Scripture is full of them, each one important. Jesus regularly spoke to his listeners through stories in which he wanted his facts to represent something else, demonstrating through symbolism how we should live. Once in a while he’d offer a direct explanation, but mostly he wouldn’t. So as we read Scripture today, what should we do if we can’t understand? What do we do with our resulting confusion?

There are two types of confusion referenced in the Bible: (1) the kind God superimposed on his enemies as a weapon, and (2) the innocent kind we might feel while trying to understand his Word. Although throwing his enemies into confusion was a tactical measure he often used, he has a different approach toward those who love him (like us) who become easily confused. In those cases, he wants to dispel confusion and increase our understanding.

God frequently reminds us that those who earnestly desire to comprehend the great truths of Scripture will be satisfied, though that doesn’t mean we’ll get answers to all our questions when we want them. What it does mean is that we’ll steadily increase in our understanding of him, which then will deeply satisfy us as we wait for explanations of what puzzles us spiritually. He wants us to know that the answers to all our problems are personified in him.

Getting closer in a relationship to Christ is the only sure route, then, to dispelling confusion over the perplexing symbolism of the Bible. Full understanding will only come when we meet him in eternal life.

And getting back to those marked trees in our forests, God didn’t need to read painted symbols to let him know which trees needed trimming. He knew all about it before the spray-painting arborists ever arrived.

“To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness.” (Ecclesiastes 2:26a)