Luke 11:29-32
In this passage from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus compares Himself to Jonah. He tells the crowd that had gathered that as Jonah was a sign from God to the people of Nineveh, He is a sign to them. He also mentions the “Queen of the South” seeking wisdom from Solomon, saying that she will “rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here.” Jesus then tells the people that the men of Nineveh will do the same, seeing as they repented at Jonah’s preaching, and now He, who is greater than Jonah, is preaching to them, yet they do not listen; instead, they look for signs from the Lord elsewhere.
Just like the people of Israel in Jesus’s time, we tend to ignore the signs and blessings God gives us. We ask for greater or more obvious signs; we miss the subtle, sometimes small ways that God works in our lives every day. As we continue through this Lenten Journey, we should make a conscious effort to realize and appreciate what God does for us every day, however small it may be. We may not think it’s much, but God knows the plans He has in store for us, as He tells us in Jeremiah, and these little blessings will lead us to where we ultimately need to be according to God’s will. We just need to trust in God’s plan, knowing that He guides us in His ways with a loving hand.