Signs and/or Wonders

Signs and/or Wonders

Sometimes we hear prayers for signs and wonders. Maybe Paul was a bit critical when he said that Jews demand miraculous signs and the Greeks look after wisdom but he preaches Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, but to all redeemed it is the power of God. Signs are often referred to as evidence of Christ’s divinity. Signs accompany the people of God, some miraculous, some simply fruit of the spirit.

During the height of the Vietnam War my cousin, Paul Kennel, felt called to Christian service bringing healing to the hurting people of Vietnam. It certainly was not a safe place to be. He asked for a sign and he believed it would come in some form of snowfall. Soon afterward we experienced a strange snowfall in the month of May only two places around the town of Harrisonburg, Va. where he lived and in the town of Mountville, Pa. where his parents lived and nowhere else. He believed this to be his sign. God protected him for eight years in Vietnam during the war.

Peter Dyck, a Canadian, was working in an orphanage around London during the World War II during the time of all the bombing raids. After a while authorities caught up with him wondering why he was not enlisted in the military. He opened the letter calling him to report for duty with a letter opener shaped like a sword. As he sat sitting at his desk thinking about this letter he was fumbling with the letter opener turning it this way and that way. As he held it one way it was a sword, turning it upside down it became a cross. Which was it going to be in his life? He carried the letter opener all his life as for him it became a sign of the cross. His life brought healing and hope to thousands of people.

Someone saw rainbow and saw a promise. Someone saw a sword and saw division. Someone heard a story of a prophet who separated a marriage rendering the ministry of the pastor paralyzed and saw a disabled church. Someone saw a toilet running and running, and saw a gifted life with ears closed going down the drain and cried. Someone saw a bill which wasn’t theirs and saw an opportunity to bless someone in redemptive love. Someone saw a bishop in overalls and saw a life of humble service. So many signs, is it just a "sign" or is it a "wonder"? I suspect it is whatever we do with it. Could a "sign" become a "wonder" of God’s redemptive love lived out among his people. That would please Paul; Christ crucified, the power of God.