Have you ever heard someone say, “What do you want me to do, draw you a picture?” The phrase is usually used to indicate someone is having a hard time understanding something. That’s nothing new is it, it’s been happening for as long as people can remember and it probably always will.

Someone shared the following story with me and after reading it; I can believe that it’s real. The storyteller says, “They’ve closed a road near where I live in order to repair a collapsed sewer-pipe. The construction workers have put up a sign saying: ROAD CLOSED. But, since the actual road closure is not apparent until you go around a bend, a lot of drivers go just to see if the road is REALLY closed.

After they see that the road really is closed, they start making their way back. Their embarrassment is made worse by another sign right behind the ROAD CLOSED sign, but facing them on their return. The new sign reads: TOLD YOU SO!

I think that must be part of the human make up to want some kind of proof for everything in our lives. In the Old Testament in Numbers 14:11, God was upset with the Israelites because of that problem. It tells us, “The LORD said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?”

In the New Testament, Paul tells us, “Seeing that the Jews make request for signs, and the Greeks are looking for knowledge: But we give the good news of Christ on the cross, a hard thing to the Jews, and a foolish thing to the Gentiles.” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23) Everyone wants proof, yet it is faith without seeing that will get us to heaven. Remember the disciple Thomas who doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead? Look again at the words of Jesus from John 20:27-29 “Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'” (NLT)

I pray that someday you don’t turn around and read the sign from God, “I told you so!” Because you see we are told in Revelation 20:12 of what will eventually happen. John says of the future, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”

So, which side of the sign are you going to believe?

Russ Lawson