Signs and wonders

When I was a kid, there was a house in Meridian, Miss., that one day came up with a light shining through one of its windows where there was no light to be had. Some said it was Jesus, and frantically we all went pouring into town. There was a long line when we came to the window to view in. I saw, well, not much. I said, well, even less, for I didn't want to be the one to say, well, I didn't see it.

Doesn't it seem that we're always demanding signs where there are no signs, or is that just me?

I read this morning from the Religion News Network, that the Vatican will soon decide on the valid of miraculous apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorie, Bosnia.

The Vatican's evaluation of the claims is nearing completion, Pope Francis said Saturday. The decision comes 34 years after a group of six young people claimed the Virgin Mary had appeared to them. The six ran to their local priest and described seeing a woman in a long, flowing dress who told them she was the Virgin Mary.

My questions are few: 1) Why 34 years? 2) What in the past 34 years has made this valid or invalid? 3) Why 34 years; and 4) What happens whether it's yay or nay?

We say we're not a people of signs and wonders, but don't we crave signs and wonders? We want to know if we're going the right way, and we cry out to God for a signpost, a GPS if you would, to let us know. Suddenly a woman in a long, flowing dress appears and, and, and ...

I know not, obviously whether this was the Virgin Mary. I wouldn't know her if she came to lunch with us today, I suspect, other than the, er, long,flowing dress. 

But I've reached the point in my faith where it no longer needs signs to know certain things are right and certain things are wrong and the rest we should throw in a bag and let Jesus judge.

The rest, well, that's just a light in a window on a cold, dark night.