Looking for a Sign

Sometimes you can look for a sign when you're wondering what to do. Or you can sign up for a change that might yield different results. Or you can resign yourself to the status quo.

So over lunch with a friend last week, I ask her if I should shake up my life to meet new people. I tell her I’m really thinking of going the online route, but I’m reluctant.


“Hmmm,” she says thoughtfully. “Why don’t you just go to the noodle place?”

Noodle place?

I haven’t heard about meeting people at a noodle place and wonder if it’s a new trend.

She elaborates that even though she’s long been married, she met a talkative, attractive man at the noodle place recently while picking up a to-go order for her young daughter.

She said they chatted about their orders and she was impressed that they had the exact same thoughts about noodles.

I suddenly remember an encounter I had at the grocery store.

I tell her a man caught my eye over the lemon bin and said I looked as if I were a real expert at picking lemons. Could I tell him how to choose one?

"Yes! That’s exactly what I’m talking about," my friend says. "What did you say to him?"

I say that of course I told him I knew nothing about lemons and wheeled my cart over to the strawberries.

She sighs and rolls her eyes at me.

Maybe looking for a sign to spark a life-change should take a backseat to working on my less-than-stellar flirtation skills.

But while I’m hesitating about which way to go {or thoughtfully pondering, as I prefer to tell myself} I still dream of the answer amazingly appearing in front of me, clearly pointing the way.

I'm always charmed by the signs I encounter when I travel.

I'm talking about the actual physical signs hanging outside of restaurants and businesses or on the sides of buildings that just invite me to notice them, not interpret them.

I admire the artistry and sometimes wonder about the thought behind them and what they were intended to communicate, because sometimes it's a little hard to tell.

But when I turn a corner or glance down an alley or curve around the side of a building or look up and unexpectedly encounter a whimsical, quirky or beautiful sign, I'm delighted by the sight.

I imagine it's a little like that when we're looking for a sign in our lives to help us move on, get going or take a step forward.

What we're looking for to confirm our decisions may not come when we want it to or in the manner we'd prefer, but God doesn't leave us directionless, adrift or alone.

He waits for us, comes back for us, and goes ahead of us, inviting us to search for him.

Before my friend and I finish our lunch, I tell her that I've signed up for a cooking class next week.

I’m going to learn pickling and preserving.

I look at her hopefully and say maybe there will be someone interesting there?

She raises an eyebrow.

“Well I guess there could be,” she says doubtfully.

“But I’d still try the noodle place if I were you.”

A little note on the photos: the signs are from Rome, Milan, Paris and New York City.

I'm having coffee with my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart.