A friend recently told me this story...

Once, when she was in her kitchen preparing a meal, she felt a tap on her shoulder.

She turned around to see a stranger pointing to the other side of the room, where my friend turned - only to see her 18-month-old daughter with the car keys that she was about to insert into an electrical outlet.

My friend leapt across the room, snatching the keys from the little hands of her surprised daughter, before embracing her ever so tightly, feeling so grateful she was ok.

Then, when my friend turned around to address the stranger in the kitchen, she realized nobody was there, the room was empty.

My friend believes that this was a sign from God - and it was given to her as an enduring message that God is with her, that both she and her daughter are not to take life for granted, and that God's gift of life must be paid forward to help others.

Has God ever sent you a sign?

Have you ever been sent one as profound as this, or one that's much more subtle?

What are you doing with it?

These questions pop up as you and I approach Sunday's Gospel, when a Samaritan woman was so touched by a dramatic and unexplainable sign from God that her life, and the lives of those around her were indelibly changed.

In fact, the Bible is full of stories of Jesus performing unexplainable signs with life-altering consequences. These consequences undoubtedly build gratitude, joy, satisfaction, and more than likely a deeper societal cohesion as people look to pay forward the gifts that they've been given.

I think, when most of us search our histories, we find moments in which we felt the Divine doing positive things for us.

And a big reason that God gives us these signs is so that we can pay it forward, that these "God moments" might inspire us to be kinder, more hopeful, more forgiving, and more loving to those around us, because we are more deeply in touch with the eternal and abiding presence of the Creator.

How has God made God's self known to you?

What kind of message was God sending?

How good are we at remembering this - And using it to fuel our own work of inner peace, reconciliation, and healing?

One of the most important words in the Bible is that word remember! Remember what God has done for us, remember how God has provided for us, remember how blessed we are - and use that remembrance for our own good, and the good of others.