"And that fills them with hope."

A couple nights ago Kelly and I watched the 2002 movie Signs by M. Night Shyamalan (of "The Sixth Sense" fame). We really like this film that's a great mix of creepy and hope-filled!

In the story, Graham Hess (played by Mel Gibson), his brother, Merrill, and his two children live on a Pennsylvania farm and are startled to find mysterious crop circles in their corn field. It turns out that there are visitors from space whose intentions are unknown, and the whole world is on edge. One late night as the two brothers are watching TV coverage of 14 space craft hovering above Mexico City, they have an amazing conversation about what it all means--it's the highlight of the film to me. Graham is a former Anglican priest, so the conversation is a spiritual one, and he tells his nervous brother:

People break down into two groups when they experience something lucky.

Group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance.

I'm sure the people in Group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation isn't fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear.

Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in the Group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.

See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?

The great thing is, not only is "someone there", we can actually have a relationship with that Someone. He not only has everything under control, both good and bad, but as it tells us in Romans 8, nothing can separate us from His love.

There may be tragic things happening in our lives--God's ultimate aim is not our earthly happiness but His ultimate glory. But in the midst of our tragedies, big and small, we really do take hope and comfort in the fact that He is completely in control and loves us with an everlasting love.