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All is Well…even when it is not.

March 1, 2023

Jonah 3:1–10  |  Psalm 51:11–18  |  Luke 11:29–32

Luke 11:29
And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.”

When I was a little girl whenever I prayed to God, I always asked for a sign. Understand this, I was small, and I was mostly insignificant in my world, so my God was a big God. I never asked for small signs, I asked for a grand, magnificent signs. I needed a big sign…proof.

Sometimes I got signs, despite my view of the world being a cruel, unfair, unsafe place. God provided these grand, magnificent miracles along the way, and I grew in my faith. ALL WAS WELL…even when it was not.

Now that I am older and I am able to look back, I see so many dangerous, dark paths that I could have taken but did not. So many times, where I was saved. “By the grace of God’ I was saved. ALL WAS WELL…even when it was not.

I’m bigger now and my faith is big. I no longer ask for signs. Yet, I see them everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I rarely ask for signs; I do ask for acceptance of situations that I cannot change or figure out. And I ask for understanding of this world when I am overwhelmed by the grief of war, hatred, inequality, disease, violence; God answers me, not with miracles of peace, love, equality, or cures, but with a sense of a calm acceptance that ALL IS WELL…even when it is not.

Mostly now, my prayers are those of gratitude. I see God everywhere and in everything. The signs that God is active and living within and among us are so abundant, I cannot even get out of bed without profound gratitude for God and his/her presence in my life.

That Jesus rose from the dead and has planted this spirit of his being squarely in the center of our being is proof enough. There are signs everywhere. How do we know to ask for something or someone who does not exist? What more proof should we need? What proof do you need?

Theresa Deiters Muscat