Opening Our Eyes to Signs From God

Do you ask God for signs, or feel like He provides them when they are most needed? Laura shares.

“It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation” (Daniel 4:2-3).

As Christmas day ended, my husband called for me to come into our family room. As I entered I saw him smiling, holding a potted geranium plant with two new pink flowerings.

Wait a minute–this was Western New York in the winter. How could a geranium have bloomed in these temperatures? I didn’t have a second thought about this logic, but rather I was joy-filled from the discovery.

Thirty-nine years earlier in December 1976, my brother discovered geraniums blooming in our laundry room. Dad had left the plants there over the winter.

Dad died December first that year; the geraniums bloomed soon after. Yearly, I place geraniums at the cemetery plot. This past November, I decided to dig up the geranium plant in my front yard and place it indoors for the winter.

Some would speculate the flower blooming was just a coincidence, but I look at it differently. Perhaps, rather, this is a sign from heaven.

We live with a bombardment of signs in our world. As I look out the window while at my favorite tea shop, I see more signs than perhaps necessary. These include Stop signs, One Way, and No U-turn–all traffic and merchant advertisements. We can easily become immune to all that surrounds us.

But what about God? Does Ge send us signs and if so, are we open to hearing or following the directives?

Perhaps we are praying and a strong thought comes to mind. Is that our thinking or a prompting from God?

As someone living with chronic illness, I feel fortunate in one sense–I have more time to pray, talk with God, and listen. Sometimes I pray while waiting for a doctor to enter the examination room or during a medical test. Other times I pray when falling asleep at night or during the afternoon when my body tells me it must rest.

Signs are a bit trickier for me and I am learning to try to listen more and become more observant to God’s messages. Perhaps the geraniums were God’s nudging to become more observant.

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank You for creating the beautiful geraniums and other nature we enjoy. Help us to listen more to You and follow Your path. Amen.

About the author:
Laura Seil Ruszczyk lives in New York with her husband of 27 years and her three children. She is a retired elementary school counselor who currently runs a HopeKeepers group at her church. She has dysautonomia, the deregulation of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system controls such invisible functions as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and temperature control.

What are some signs from God you have experienced?

This is “Night Song” with Ellie Holcomb. I find those long nights that are filled with pain and sleeplessness to be one of the times I am most likely to ask God for a sign. It doesn’t even have to be immediate–it is okay if God wants to wait until morning to give me a sign. But I so want to start the day knowing that He has it all under control. We must surrender those deepest desires to nearly “demand” a sign, however. And when I do, that is when I find myself getting little surprises from God–signs that remind me of whatever it was I needed assured of. How about you? -Lisa