Where do you see the finger of God?

My last reflection focused on Moses’ difficult position: In requesting the Israelites’ release from Pharaoh, he is making life more difficult for his people. They are angry with him. He is caught between his people, God, Pharaoh, and his purpose.

Moses and Aaron press on, continuing to ask Pharaoh to release the Israelites. Each time Pharaoh says no. Moses performs supernatural signs to convince Pharaoh, changing a staff into a serpent and turning water from the Nile into blood. Pharaoh’s magicians reproduce the first two signs, but then admit something greater is at work when Moses brings a plague of gnats:

The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” (Exodus 8:18-19)

Pharaoh continues to deny God, but his loyal sorcerers realize a greater power is at work. They cannot match God’s results. Instead of telling Pharaoh to let the Israelites go (which they do later), the embarrassed magicians point to God’s touch, even if not admitting his full sovereignty. They can clearly see God’s involvement through Moses and Aaron.

We can often see the “finger of God” in our lives through others, although perhaps in more positive ways than plagues. It might be in the love expressed between two people at a wedding, or in the funeral celebration of a life well lived. It shines through in the playful innocence and authentic questions of a child or grandchild. You see God’s touch in a person’s generosity, or in the forgiveness offered by a family member to the one who has hurt them. It takes shape in a pastor’s sermon, catches your breath in an author’s novel, dawns on you through a mentor’s wise questions, or saves you through a doctor’s healing touch. It may present as a stern rebuke or a word of warning. Sometimes God’s touch even sneaks up on you through a stranger’s kindness.

Have you ever had an interaction with someone in which you felt God’s touch? What was it they did or said that caused you to see the finger of God?