Signs

So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. John 4:46-54


Signs

Sometimes tragedy and isolation
bend our heads down we see
only the ground moving slowly
under our dragging feet.

Sometimes the fever and shaking
the silence and the nightmares
are our only terrifying companions
and we pray for sweet release.

Sometimes we are burdened with grief
folks walk away for lack of words
we have been shunned for loving
we are marked as stranger at home.

Sometimes the fashions of the world
are whimsical and frivolous most often
they are cruel and selfish leaving
the needy and broken in the cold.

Sometimes the wind rises up
pushing the damp diseased climate
out of our houses and our lungs
letting us breathe again,

God is always working to clear
the debris and the bindings
to release us from prison
and to make our live anew.

God is always rising up against
the cruelty of the world
gathering the children and the vulnerable
to the warmth of the Creator's arms.

God is acting when we are sleeping
when we are crying in our beds
when we are bent in sorrow and shame
God is moving for us with love.