Stopped in the left-hand turn lane this morning waiting for the traffic light to change, I found myself engaged in the time-honored, almost irresistible practice of motorist everywhere – mindlessly staring at my blinker and that of the car in front of me. They were, of course, out of synch. Discordant flashes of light vying for dominance. And then it happened. The moment I knew would come and anticipated with surprising delight. With seeming effortless simplicity, they were blinking in perfect unison. Just for a moment. I found myself relaxing; I actually took a deeper breath. In this brief respite, all was as it should be in the universe.

I made my turn, and my thoughts turned with me. It’s silly. I find such calm in a captured moment of synchronized car blinkers. I want it to last just a little longer. In contrast, their discordance unsettles me. My nerves quietly chafe. It just bugs me. Proceeding with my morning commute, I began to hear the point those lights were making. The truth they were revealing, that life – life before me, life now, life after me – is out of synch. All is not as it should be with the universe. Not yet. There are forces vying for dominance. Inside of me. Outside of me. I also couldn’t ignore the longings that were bared. Longing for wholeness and healing and good. Longing for freedom from evil and the effects of sin. Longing for God to be known and loved. For the blinkers of life to be in synch…

And so I acknowledge my faithful car blinker. When the Author of Life needed to reassure one of His children that the Story of Redemption is safe in His skilled hand, He chose to speak through the most unlikely agent. My blinker’s disjointed sparring with the car in front of us forced me to acknowledge that there is a Greater Story in progress and that there is evil and loss and injustice and pain written into it. I mourn it globally; I mourn it personally. But greater still the graceful moment of glowing synchronization that allowed me a glimpse of eternal clarity. That brief moment of perfect harmony a reminder that the story is not yet finished, that there will be a day when all is made right. Discordance will step down and bow before Love.