A Strange Sign

Have you ever seen a sign?
    Not a road sign,
    not a billboard,
Not made with human hands.
    One sent from God,
    sometimes strange,
    yet, often ordinary.
Sign crafted by God,
    a puff of a cloud,
    a worm eaten bush,
    marriage to a whore,
    buying land at Anathoth.
Strange, but ordinary,
    also, often missed.

Two signs came to Mary,
    one full of holy mystery,
    an angel named Gabriel.
A second, quite ordinary,
    as simple as time,
    six months, it says,
    then, the angel came.
The sign in the hill country,
    an old woman,
    wrinkled and worn out,
    expectant joy,
    swollen belly.
Strange, but a promise,
    what God says will be.


(Luke 1:26, 36, 38)