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Writer's pictureJane Wheeler

Sign Language at the Drive Through



We were in the line up at MacDonalds to grab Brian a coffee, it was a 2 line drive through and I love to people watch as we sit in line.


I looked over at the car beside us and was taken aback for a moment when I saw the fellow talking with his hands to the speaker. I started to giggle as I mentioned this to Brian and watched the guy hold up 2 fingers to the speaker as he said the word, “two”.

“That guy is ordering with his hands. Do you think he knows that they cannot see him?” I asked.


Definitely a hands talker and it got me to thinking, how much in life do we do automatically, even remotely, not even aware that we are doing it, nor realizing that the other person we are communicating with is “not getting it”.


This situation grew in my mind to a blog when I realized that we probably talk to God in the same kind of way. It may not be with hand signals, but then again it might.  

I have certainly caught myself frustrated and looking up at the sky talking to God and muttering, “I am sure you have a plan in this somewhere?” throwing an arm or two around.


It reminds me of an amazing line Pastor Amy said in her sermon a few weeks ago, “We

are so busy earning points for a God that doesn’t even keep score.”  

God is not keeping "score", we are.


We are so busy giving God the signals to show Him what we have done, are doing and how much He needs to keep track of it.


We assume that God has no idea what is going on, so we give Him the details – you know, like, “Father, auntie Mary, the 85-year-old, the one who lives in Washington, loves knitting, and has that cat, well she is needing….”


God is a detail kind of God and He knows about Mary, we do not have to give God the zip or postal code of people when we pray. It is kind of like doing hand signals to the speaker, it is not really necessary. If as the Bible says God knows how many hairs are on our heads and when a sparrow falls to the ground, it sounds like He has it pretty well covered. Matthew 10:29-31


I am not making fun of hands talkers; they are fairly delightful and in some countries it is very cultural to talk that way. On a cruise ship I took out of Italy the whole ship practically talked with their hands because it was full of Italians and that is how that culture communicates. I enjoyed every minute of people watching there.


I wonder if God finds us just as entertaining.


We start out on a project that is a great idea to us, we ask God to bless it. Did we ask God if we should do it, or we simply went ahead and tackled the plan, did I mention it was a good plan? When it goes sideways, we throw up our hands in frustration and ask God why it is not working. God never told us to do it even if it was a good plan.


God has told us how to live in a very detailed way in the Bible. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33


If we did not seek Him first it is kind of like sign language to the speaker, we are attempting to convince God to do it our way. He is the boss, we are not.


We have certainly been learning this lesson here at our property. God gave us an order of things to do and we thought it was more of a “list”. You know when I am shopping at the grocery store I have a list and what I come to first, if it is on the list, into the cart it goes. I do not go down the list in order, I would be walking all over the store, many times! But what we have been learning from personal experience here on the property, is that we needed to follow God’s list, in His order and not ours.


We built the outhouse as God instructed Brian to do and one day as I watched poor Brian dig out that hole by hand in the hard as rock clay, God told me that the outhouse was important. He said that even the Israelites when they left Egypt, millions of them, had to know for cleanliness and sanitation where and how to put their poop in a group. Makes sense and think of how detailed God is to plan that all out.


But what do you do when God and His instructions do not appear to make sense? He asks you to do some strange and weird thing that you cannot figure out? If you go by the Bible and look at how Jesus lived, it really does not matter if it makes sense to you:  you obey.  


Noah in the Bible, was told to build a boat. Not just any boat but a humongous boat because water was going to be coming. Not sure if you are aware but there was not much for water there where Noah lived and the concept of rain was just as foreign. Noah was the town fool. It took him years to build the ark and I cannot even imagine the amount of teasing, ridicule and abuse he took for building such a monstrosity. But when the rain came and the waters rose, Noah was the guy who did not seem so foolish.


Daniel was taken prisoner from Israel to Babylon along with thousands of other Jewish people a very long time ago. His lifestyle impressed the King and Daniel was given favor until some very jealous guys wanted to trap him. Knowing the only way to trap him would be something about his faith, they banned worship to anything other than the King. Daniel continued to pray to God faithfully 3 times a day. They caught him praying and the King had to throw Daneil into the lion’s den. Daniel believed that God could rescue him if he wanted to and told the King it was okay, God was still God.


When Daniel hit the ground in the lions den the lions sat calmly around, they did not touch him. The King was shocked and told them to lift out Daniel and to throw in the guys who caught him. Before those other fellows hit the ground the lions attacked them. God had given the Jewish people an order of things. Seek me first, I will take care of you. It is so easy to forget this and get caught up in our daily life, pushing God to the back burner. That is not the order He gave us. Him first, all else second.


“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33


Start with God, continue with God, remain with God and He will be there in the midst of everything you go through. This is not a promise that it will be totally smooth sailing because God also told us, “in this world you will have troubles…” John 16:33

Life is hard, we can get so stuck on things that we can be like the guy at the speaker, talking with our hands and looking up wondering exactly where God is. If we had stayed the course and stayed with God…….


Sign language is a form of communication where the actions of your hands and even your body tell the story, the language, the communication. We all have our own form of “communication” with our bodies. Can you tell if a person is mad just by watching them? Of course you can. Can you see agitation or joy? They all show up in different ways depending on the person.


Noah showed by his actions that He trusted God even when it made no sense.

Daniel trusted God in the face of torture and death, even when it made no sense.

Is God asking you to do or go through something that makes no sense to you? You have 2 choices: your common sense or Godly wisdom, which will you chose?


I wonder how many times when we thought we knew better than God and did it our way, how many blessings and miracles have we missed on the way because “we  thought we knew better”?

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