We’ve been talking for some time about God’s love, that it is the principal essence of the universe. Without it, there would be nothing, for it is the reason God chose to create in the first place. 

For those of us who have come to know the Father through His Son, that love has become real. We may doubt it at times, we may struggle to believe it as we could, but at some point in time we felt His presence and His love, or we would have never come to faith. All of our stories are different, but this thread is the same. It has to be. 

Simultaneously, God was able to convict us more deeply about many of the things that go on in our hearts — some things we knew about, many we did not, and all of it worse than we ever believed. 

Without a more personal and tangible belief in God’s love, a greater awareness of just how selfish we truly are would have been our complete undoing. But with His love to comfort and reassure us, in spite of who we have been, we were humbled beyond words. How could we not? 

Some have taken these two things, our conviction of the depth of God’s love, and our conviction of the depth of our sin — and put them into a phrase: “I’m worse than I ever imagined, but more loved than I ever dreamed.” As a sentence, it may describe the gospel better than any other. Both came true at the same time. 

I want to discuss another story that deals with the love of God, His checed, from a different perspective. It deals with a man who had great love for the Father, so much so he was a pastor, but something happened that caused him to lose his faith. But then something else happened and caused him to regain it. The story gives us a front row seat to the angst of this man’s soul and prompts us to consider the nature of faith: what it is to begin with, how it can be vulnerable to doubt, and what it takes to restore it. 

On the one hand, I don’t believe the author of this story is a Christian, or even religious. He says he is not. But on the other hand, the message is so clear, up front and center, it is unmistakable. We will be looking at the movie, Signs, by M. Night Shymalan, which examines the questions I mentioned better than any story I know.

You know, one day there might really be an alien invasion. The testimonies of Navy pilots in recent years who believe they have seen alien craft, are as compelling as they are disturbing. The Bible does not talk of such things. God does not explicitly say He did not create other worlds with other creatures. I have always thought we are on a “need to know” basis with God. If we need to know, He will tell us. 

In the movie Signs, Graham Hess is a former pastor in a farming community outside of Philadelphia when an alien invasion begins. Before long there are thousands of alien craft in the night sky, hovering, everywhere in the world. With no communication from them, it’s assumed they are hostile and will begin a ground war very soon, for they don’t want to destroy this world, but save it for themselves. As Graham and his brother Merrill sit on the sofa, trying to come to terms with all of this, the most incredible conversation occurs. It goes something like this. Merrill begins: 

“Do you think this is the end of the world?”

“Yes.”

“Why can’t you be more encouraging, like when you were a pastor?”

 Graham hesitates, and then responds, “People belong in two groups. The first group doesn’t believe in pure luck. They see those aliens, but they believe there is someone up there looking out for them. No matter what happens, there will be someone to help them, and so, they are filled with hope. The second group sees those aliens and believes it could be bad, it could be good, but either way it’s random. They believe they are on their own, and they are filled with fear. So, you need to ask yourself, to which group do you belong?” 

You see, Graham used to belong to the first group, but now has joined the second. His life with God was going fine until one evening after dark, a year or two earlier, his wife Colleen was out on a walk. 

They lived out in the country. It was an isolated road. A neighbor was out in his truck, he passed no one else that night. He fell asleep at the wheel. He had never fell asleep at the wheel before. This happened right at the very instant he was passing Colleen, but also at the very instant there was a very large oak tree right behind her. The truck completely pinned her to the tree. Much of her was essentially cut in half, but held there by the truck. 

She was barely conscious when Graham got there, but able to speak. She knew she only had minutes to live, gave Graham final instructions for how to love each of their children, and said it was “meant to be,” implying that as tragic and unexpected as it was, it was still within God’s plan. But Graham could never accept it as such and afterwards slowly passed from the first group, to the second.  

Our faith is confronted in this life when bad things happen to us. We know there are no guarantees in this life, God never gave us that. But on most days things make sense. For many of us, our lives are more filled with blessings than curses.  

But isn’t it a greater challenge when something very, very bad happens to us that is also very unlikely? And the more unlikely, the harder? If we are ever to challenge God, this just might be the time. 

Need to pause here until next time. If you can watch the movie Signs, please do. Would love to hear from some of you with any comments or questions. 

 

Sam