SIGNS AND WONDERS

Signs, Wonders and Miracles.

The God of Wonder gives us signs all the time, sometimes without asking-things that stop you in your tracks. Sometimes they are real signs. Like the ones hanging on doors, licence plates or walls. Sometimes, but not always they are more subtle. A bush that burns but never burns out isn't too subtle. That's a show stopper.
God gave Moses a sign that he would have power to deliver his people from the Egyptians when he turned his staff into a snake after Moses protested he was too ineloquent to do the job. God gave Moses a sign he would lead him through the desert when he manifested the pillars of fire and smoke to lead him. God gave Noah a sign of the flood when he told him to build an ark before it ever started raining. God gave the world a sign of Jesus by over 300 Old Testament prophesies that foretold of his coming significantly by the prophet Isaiah. Jesus gave everyone who cared to listen signs of who he was by all the miracles he did perform before them, raising the dead to life, curing all manner of disease healing the sick, driving out demons, turning water to wine, walking on water, converting souls to forgiveness, repentance and deeper love. All that pronounced loudly who Jesus was for he who had ears to listen. So when the Scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign or miracle of who Jesus was and Jesus cursed them as "an evil and adulterous generation" why did he do that?
It wasn't because they asked for a sign, it's because they asked for a sign-they who were so oblivious to all the signs that were already in their faces- and the leaders of the "evil and adulterous generation". It would be like someone watching someone walking on their hands while juggling with their feet from a high wire saying-prove you really work for Cirque du Soleil. Why were they "evil?" Because they were so self-righteously self-absorbed they refused to see what was staring them in their faces. They had ears to hear and didn't hear. They had eyes to see and were blind.
They were "adulterous" in that they followed after their own idols and God is a jealous God. They were so stuck in their own tilted ritualistic paradigm that they quashed the life out of it; they preferred kissing images to people.
They were so adulterous they lusted after their own power, privilege and perspective to a point where it blinded them to all the miracles and all the prophecies in scripture in which they were supposed to be so astutely expert.
God loves signs, wonders and miracles. All you have to do is look out your window, then read Revelation to understand this. His creation is full of signs, wonders and miracles like a map to Treasure Island. Leaves on trees is a sign of spring and regeneration and rebirth. Snow is a sign of a cold winter. A bee on a flower is a sign that pollenation will follow and flowers will spring forth. "A baby is a sign that God has not given up on the World."
And what of the people who are blind and deaf to that which is before their faces? Ask the progeny of the people who didn't make it on Noah's Ark. Oh- whoops. You can't. They went the way of Atlantis.
There is a Redeemer. He is the font of every blessing. Every One. Sometimes he puts the blessing right in front of your face. You can close your eyes because he gave you free will.
But if you return to sender, he doesn't promise you a gift receipt.