For the last two times we have been discussing the movie Signs by M. Night Shymalan. I hope you have thought about what I asked you last time: 

If you were God and you wanted to speak to Graham (who lost his faith because the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death were so unlikely), what might you say or do to restore his faith? To make it clear you were God — you’ve always been up there looking out for him, you do hold all things in your hands, but bad things happen for the time being in this broken world, a world we broke when we fell. And most importantly, our story is not over, we are only in the middle of it. 

While you’re thinking of that, let’s see how Mr. Shymalan decided to speak to Graham. There are a number of things in this story that don’t seem important, but are interesting:

1) Uncle Merrill was a minor league baseball player, an incredible hitter, who hit a home run 507 feet. Babe Ruth’s home run of 575 feet is the record, but 507 would place Merrill in the top ten. The point is that Merrill could swing a bat extremely hard.

2) Graham’s daughter, Bo, is about four years old (played by Abigail Breslin, the cutest performance by a child I have ever seen). Bo’s struggle with the loss of her mother has resulted in her becoming obsessed that drinking water is contaminated, for all sorts of reasons, and she has the most unusual habit of leaving unfinished glasses of water all over the house. Her father cleans them up for a while, but finally gives up. They literally decorate the house. 

3) Morgan, Graham’s son who is around ten, is a severe asthmatic who uses an inhaler. 

4) When Colleen died, her last words to Graham were, “Tell Merrill . . . tell him to see.” And then she says, “tell Merrill to swing away.” Graham wants to believe her last words were meaningful, but concludes they were not. 

5) The aliens kill humans with a poisonous gas, something which seems to come from their wrists. 

Near the end of the movie, aliens are in their house, driving them down to the basement. An alien appears in an old coal chute, grabbing Morgan for a moment, but he breaks away. The terror of this precipitates an asthma attack, but his inhaler is upstairs. His father then holds Morgan on his lap on the cellar floor, trying to calm him. He begins to breath “with him,” slowly . . . in, and then out, inviting Morgan to follow his lead. Morgan can physically feel his father’s chest on his back, making it easier. After a few minutes, he finally calms down. 

This may be the most beautiful picture I have ever seen of the Father Himself doing his best to calm us — encouraging us to slow down our breath, leading us through the experience of inhaling and exhaling more slowly, helping us to let go of all the tension, and even panic, some disturbing detail in our lives has prompted in us: “Just breathe, slowly . . . in . . . and out.” 

If you find yourself in a panic, over anything, try envisioning this picture. See if you can “feel” the Father’s breath as Morgan did. I would try it. I already have. (And think of it – all of this from Mr. Shymalan, who claims he does not believe)

Morning comes and the aliens seem to all be gone, a mystery. The family goes upstairs, but Morgan is still exhausted, laying on the couch in the den. And then it happens. An alien appears out of nowhere, grabs Morgan and within seconds the rest of the family is there watching, frozen. The alien puts his wrist up to Morgan’s face, and some sort of vein extends out of his forearm. The alien holds it there, just as a person would hold a gun to someone’s head in a standoff.

And just then, Colleen’s last words come back to Graham: “See” and “Swing Away.” Graham looks around the room, and lo and behold, hanging on the wall behind Merrill, is his famous bat. Graham tells Merrill to “swing away,” and Merrill grabs the bat and walks up to confront the alien, who goes ahead and releases the poisonous gas into Graham’s face. Merrill immediately begins to wail away at the alien, enabling Graham to grab Morgan and flee outside with both children. 

It doesn’t take long for Merrill’s bat to cause the alien to fall backwards and glasses of water here and there fall down on him. His skin is instantly burned, and soon it is fatal. This is apparently why the invasion ended, something the aliens didn’t anticipate — water is incredibly toxic to them. 

In the yard, Graham gives Morgan an injection of epinephrine, frantically praying, asking God to spare him, to not let this happen “again.” The passing seconds seem like an eternity to them all. Morgan isn’t moving and seems lifeless. But just then, he wakes up. The epinephrine works. 

Graham realizes the alien’s poison did not affect Morgan because his lungs were so closed from the asthma attack. And Mr. Shymalan does not lead us through all the other details, but the message is clear. If Graham had thought the circumstances around his wife’s tragic death were incredibly unlikely – what about the circumstances around the saving of Morgan’s life: 

an alien invasion

a hand to hand battle with them

Morgan being an asthmatic and having a severe attack in the basement

Colleen’s last words to Graham about “see” and “swing away” 

Merrill being one of the greatest hitters ever

The family ending up in the den with Merrill standing just below his famous bat on the wall

the aliens using toxic gas as a weapon, which he released into Morgan’s face

Bo’s obsession with leaving glasses of water all over the house

the alien falling back against the walls of the den because of the beating he was taking

the fact that water was toxic to the aliens

the fact Morgan’s lungs closed so completely the gas could not be absorbed

the fact Graham had an epinephrine syringe ready to use

 

And I am sure I left out something. The movie simply ends some months later and shows Graham putting on his pastor’s collar as he’s getting dressed for work one morning, for he has become a pastor again. 

God spoke and Graham heard Him. Or, as Graham put it earlier in the story — if God is real, there is no such thing as coincidence. 

Next time,

Sam

Coming soon, Volume Two