Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

How valuable is a Sign? Three years ago, 33 members of the Bluffton University baseball team boarded a bus at their campus in Bluffton, Ohio. It was early evening and the college students had a long night of travel ahead, an 18 hour bus ride to Sarasota, Florida, which promised sunshine and the first game of their season. After an uneventful overnight drive, the bus stopped in Adairsville, Georgia to get a fresh driver, then headed south on I-75, eventually entering the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane. As the bus rolled closer to Atlanta, it neared the turn-off for Northside Drive, the first of several left-hand HOV exits that dot that stretch of highway. The driver, Jerome Niemeyer, should have kept right where the road split, continuing toward Florida in the HOV through lane. Instead, he took the left hand exit ramp at highway speed, apparently mistaking it for a regular lane. At the ramps end, he drove through a stop sign and four lanes of traffic before careening into a retaining wall and flipping onto the highway 19 feet below. The accident killed seven people -five of the Bluffton players, the bus driver, and his wife Jean, who was along to keep him company. When the National Transportation Safety Board investigated, it blamed the crash in part on Georgia’s failure to install adequate signs.

Obviously, signs are important. In this case, a sign was the difference between life and death. Signs point us in the right direction, get us to our destination, keep us from getting lost and keep us from harm.  This month at Pathways we're going to talk about four of the signs Jesus gave to show who he is and what he came to earth to do. His signs point the way for us to know who he is. If we believe that Jesus is our savior, the Messiah, the son of God, then that belief and obedience to his teaching leads us in the right direction and keeps us from getting lost or harmed. Have you seen the signs?