Looking for Signs

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Flyte

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“A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. And he left them, and went away.” Matthew 16:4

Keeping that in mind, is it morally acceptable to ask yourself what God is trying to say, after an unusual event?

Mildly Disturbing

For example, today I was driving along, and I saw an opossum rolling around in the middle of the road, bleeding from the ears, mouth gaping towards the sky. This happened after I had sinned, and I was quite perturbed.

Ok to try and interpret that? :confused:
 
Without necessarily seeking a sign, God often speaks to us under the form of a parable, which coincides with something in our life that He wants to speak to us about. The timing of these parables or analgies is amazing to me, for I can usually sense what He is trying to teach me. Often, they have been given in the type of hobby that most interests me. Just as in the gospels, He uses parables from the type of culture that people are familiar with.

For example, if you read the book of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God would walk them through a parable and then explain the meaning afterwards. He often explained His parables privately to the apostles after the teaching. They are full of wisdom, if we have ears to hear!

If your little opposum gave you a picture of sin, well and good, for sin will leave us battered and bruised, but trusting in God’s mercy, as we look upward to Him in repentence.

I was just explaining to a friend the other day about a parable He walked me through. It was midday, well after fog has lifted. Having to drive several miles in this horrific fog to reach my destination, I was in a constant panic for I could only see a few feet ahead, nothing behind, and nothing on the side of me. Yet low and behold, I always had just enough vision to drive to the next street, and the next red light became visible.

This gives me strength to endure those dark trials when God seems very far from me, for I know that despite the thick fog, there will always be just enough light to continue going in safety. It is hard to live in the present moment, but I know it will not be productive to try and see ahead, or dwell in the past. One learns patience and abandonment in this type of darkness. 🙂

Thank God, and ask Him if there is a meaning to your parable.
 
Flyte said:
“A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. And he left them, and went away.” Matthew 16:4

Keeping that in mind, is it morally acceptable to ask yourself what God is trying to say, after an unusual event?

Mildly Disturbing

For example, today I was driving along, and I saw an opossum rolling around in the middle of the road, bleeding from the ears, mouth gaping towards the sky. This happened after I had sinned, and I was quite perturbed.

Ok to try and interpret that? :confused:
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Remember what was asked of Jesus before He uttered the words you quoted.
Now were you looking for some hint or sign from God about your situation? Not likely.
In the way you have phrased the question it seems that when one askes “what are you trying to say God?” is not releated to what Christ spoke of.

Poor thing, gopher or coyote whatever

I wouldn’t give you license to do that, but remeber just how fragile life really is.
 
We repent our sins and resolve not to sin again, taking it to confession. I don’t think God would allow some poor little creature to be writing in pain to get our spiritual attention.

To my mind, this is what it means… a poor little creature that needs my care and would stop the car, go back, pick it up gently, wrapping it in something, speaking as softly and increasingly as possible, take it to the nearest vet as in my country vets treat wild animals without payment required. I would contact a wildlife carer if the little thing could recover (though I’d prefer to care for it myself, or if the little creature wasn’t going to survive, take it home and love it kindly until it died. At least it wouldn’t die alone. Even wild animals know one is trying to help, and the degree of trust has often been so humbling and touching.

I’ve cared for many creatures, birds, possums, and even an baby jackrabbit when in the U.S. during August-September 2001. I saw her immobile on the road edge, but the little eyes were alive. I gently picked her up and took her back to the house. I bathed her grazes and she sighed in the warm water. A wild creature, but though I could help her heal her grazes, I couldn’t the broken back. I had to call a wildlife centre. However I wrapped the clean little creature in a towel gently and put her at my side so she wouldn’t die alone if she died in the night. She edged up until she could put her little face leaning against mine, but I put her back carefully to my side. She edged up again to my face, put in her nose to my nose, so I left her there…because if we see an injured animal on or by the road, we help it or we get someone else to help it, call wildlife organizations…I once had to call a vet to put down a beautiful kangaroo whose leg was brother when it crashed into a car.

This is what it means. A wounded creature needs the care of a person willing to be kind and to aid its recovery, or to give it reassuring kindness until it dies.
I really don’t don’t think God would allow some poor little creature to be writing in pain to get our spiritual attention.

However we can use all things to draw us closer to God. 🙂
 
I really don’t don’t think God would allow some poor little creature to be writing in pain to get our spiritual attention.
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In one sense, I can agree with you that God was not the first cause of the animal’s injury, simply to provide our OP with a message. No, it happened, but God was able to use that misfortune as a means to bring a message perhaps to one who was likewise bruised, injured, needing the Divine Shepherd to heal him.

I don’t believe God was inspiring him to pick up the animal and nurse it, considering that it may have become rabid. You may be called and capable of doing this, but please don’t lay a guilt trip on others by suggesting they are inhumane if they simply cannot respond as you do.
 
Sirach2 said:
In one sense, I can agree with you that God was not the first cause of the animal’s injury, simply to provide our OP with a message. No, it happened, but God was able to use that misfortune as a means to bring a message perhaps to one who was likewise bruised, injured, needing the Divine Shepherd to heal him.
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This is similar to my take on it. I think that the spirit actually has some way of calling things “out of chaos” to our attention. For example, look at a page full of writing, and the only misspelled word on the page INSTANTLY starts flashing in red, long before you had a chance to even glance over to see what it says. To me this means the mind has been trained to notice patterns or disturbances in patterns, without having to have consciously even noticed it, much less analyzed it.

This makes one model I have for thinking about spirit, and that is that we tend to catch a pattern that is meaningful to us. So you might have seen the possum and it hit you at a good time. Well, maybe you drove by a large dog in a similar situation before you had sinned, but didn’t notice it. I think it is our mind, conscience, spirit, or something that guides us, via “analysis” by our subconscious, to notice those things we need to notice. Same way that a mother can be asleep in a room with crying babies until hers cries, then she’s “tuned in” to it. I think this might be a little about how the Spirit might work.
I don’t believe God was inspiring him to pick up the animal and nurse it, considering that it may have become rabid. You may be called and capable of doing this, but please don’t lay a guilt trip on others by suggesting they are inhumane if they simply cannot respond as you do.
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I agree with you that the OP was probably not being inspired in this way. I could be wrong, but I did not take Trishie’s post to be a guilt trip, rather just revealing how she personally would have addressed it. (We’re all tuned in to different frequencies, or IOW “colors.” As an electrical/communications engineer with optics training, I get to use that terminology. 😃 )

Alan
 
I don’t believe God left that opossum for you as a sign to interpret. However, I believe that, in your guilty state, the stark picture of the opossum lying there was enough to trigger a remembrance of your sin.

Because of our consciences, we hold ourselves accountable when we sin. Once we repent to God or go to confession, the sin is wiped away forever. God does operate in signs and wonders but I don’t think the opossum played a part in that.
 
Flyte said:
“A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. And he left them, and went away.” Matthew 16:4

Keeping that in mind, is it morally acceptable to ask yourself what God is trying to say, after an unusual event?

Mildly Disturbing

For example, today I was driving along, and I saw an opossum rolling around in the middle of the road, bleeding from the ears, mouth gaping towards the sky. This happened after I had sinned, and I was quite perturbed.

Ok to try and interpret that? :confused:
Click to expand...
It doesn’t mean anything.
 
Sirach2 said:
In one sense, I can agree with you that God was not the first cause of the animal’s injury, simply to provide our OP with a message. No, it happened, but God was able to use that misfortune as a means to bring a message perhaps to one who was likewise bruised, injured, needing the Divine Shepherd to heal him.

I don’t believe God was inspiring him to pick up the animal and nurse it, considering that it may have become rabid. You may be called and capable of doing this, but please don’t lay a guilt trip on others by suggesting they are inhumane if they simply cannot respond as you do.
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Your answer would appear to indicate that you were were offended by my post, unnecessarily, which is a shame. I’m sorry for the unintended and unnecessary stress.

I agree with your first point as I mentioned in my last line
when I wrote
However we can use all things to draw us closer to God

On the second point, was not endeavoring to guilt anyone, but if you re-read my post, was reflecting on how I would see it and respond, not what anyone else should do. My response was factual, not a judgement. Accidents are facts, not signs, but as I did mention in my last line of the post you object to, we can interpret things in such a way that we can find a message. Obviously we can’t do so without God’s Spirit in us

God bless
 
Trishie, this was the part of your post that seemed like you were expecting others to follow suit.
This is what it means. A wounded creature needs the care of a person willing to be kind and to aid its recovery, or to give it reassuring kindness until it dies.
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I understood you to infer that the OP was not kind, therefore, because he did not aid it’s recovery. I’m sorry if you thought I was offended, but I did not fully understand your meaning. Seen in this light, one could interpret it other than as you intended it.
 
Sirach2 said:
Trishie, this was the part of your post that seemed like you were expecting others to follow suit.

I understood you to infer that the OP was not kind, therefore, because he did not aid it’s recovery. I’m sorry if you thought I was offended, but I did not fully understand your meaning. Seen in this light, one could interpret it other than as you intended it.
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I see what you mean. Yeah, putting yours and hers together, I take it like: The possum was injured because there was an accident. We don’t know why there was an accident. But we do know that after the accident at least one person noticed it, and it triggered an examination of conscience, which I take to be a Good Thing.

Additionally, it’s possible the same possum will “speak” to other drivers, and maybe another Trishie will be a few seconds behind the OP, and be able and willing to care for the animal – making St. Francis smile, I’m sure.

That makes possibly two or more good outcomes to one unfortunate accident.

Rom 8:26
We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

“All things” must mean all good, bad, and even random things, I would imagine. 🙂

Alan
 
Yes, I can see that now you point it out, Sirach2.
My answer was too subjective which was unfair.
And my response to the graphic vision of the injured oppossum was subjective pain.

I confess that when I picked up that jackrabbit I was on my way to Mass, sniffling over the terrible tragedy that occurred that week in September 2001, I did feel as if it was a gift from God that I found her. God had nothing to do with the injury, but that I found her in the gutter and stooped over her to see live eyes looking up at me, was there something of God that I walked by, being something of a bird & animal whisperer I suppose? Yet what about the dead possums I pass and peer at to see if there is any help I can render…but they died alone.

Yes Flyte, I do think we can find God’s messages in anything, as God is everywhere, and as God dwells in us.
And I’ve sometimes found in animals and birds such messages.
I test signs very critically, yet sometimes they seem to be there.
By your challenge Sirach2 you uncovered my ongoing battle between practical reality and faith. 🙂
 
Trishie said:
you made plain my ongoing battle between practical reality and faith.
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Not that I’m a judge, but from this vantage point it looks to me like you are doing a great job of synchronizing the two. 🙂

Alan
 
Thanks, Trishie. :hug1: I’m glad we are not at odds with one another.
 
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