"NO!"

Down the road from where my father lived, there is this sign. It is approximately 24 inches square. One word, nothing more. It has been up for a long time. Whenever I am in Louisiana, I take walks down this road and have passed this sign bunches of times for many years. I would assume this is not the whole message, but I could be wrong. Perhaps "No Trespassing" was the original intent, but the sign is on a telephone pole on a public road. Hardly a place to prevent people from being. Maybe it was a protest against something. But the location would guarantee a very limited readership. It could be that the person placed it there in response to a question someone had asked them. Maybe a shy bride was answering a suitor or a kid was being defiant toward his parents. Maybe it is meaningless, but, knowing where it is located - I am guessing it was there for a reason - in light of the expenditure of energy to place it.

No is a powerful word. There is no ambiguity about it. Jesus said, "Let your yes be yes and your no be no". It is a negative, but there are some very positive things about "No". We teach our children to say "No" to drugs. It can be an ominous word: "No turning back" or "No way out". But, it can bring great encouragement: "There will be no more tears, no more sadness, no more sorrow".

I don't know what the "No" sign means out in the woods in central Louisiana. And, I don't think I ever will. The environment is working against it. One day it will fall off of the pole and lay on the side of the road and be reclaimed by the ground on which it lies. It will then be "No" more. How unlike us. A glorious future awaits all those who have cast themselves on the glorious "Yes" of Christ.