looking up

So, as I was killing time last week while the kids were at their after school sports practice, I went over to Macy's at North DeKalb Mall and I saw this sign: Men working above. 

I looked up. There were no men. There were not even a bunch women with one man among them (as the Greek may imply). I looked up and I only saw the ceiling of the awning.

Men working above? Where? 

Everywhere we look we see signs. Some pointing us to things that we can see, some pointing beyond the visible. 

When we look up, sometimes all we see are ceilings and awnings that block us from seeing something more, Someone bigger.  We look up and we see rusted lights, frayed wires, exposed fixtures, places that birds and bugs have made as their home... and that's all we see. We don't step out from the under the protection of the awning to look for more. 

I admit that I saw this sign and I laughed. I thought about how the "men" were a trinitarian God and started humming the old Gaither song, "he's still working on me". And then I chided myself for the maculation of God. Someone should report that to the Conference rep of COSROW  :) 

But the Men... the Man... the Woman...Sophia... the army of the Lord is not working above. We cannot/should not look up to see how God is working, but as people of the Incarnate God and people who believe that we are to be the hands and feet of God we know to look vertically. To look around our communities, our churches, our city streets to find the evidence that God is working. The work is done by us because of our love for Jesus and our belief that He is the one who calls us, leads us, and ordains us. 

So, if you decide to follow the signs that point the way, remember to step out of the safety of the awning. You might get wet, you might get burned but you can't get a glimpse of God in the world if you never enter the world. Look up, but look beyond and step out.