When the Signal Finds You

In 2017, Hurricane Maria knocked out nearly all of Puerto Rico's cell towers. For weeks, millions of people had no way to call loved ones, no way to reach emergency services, no way to know if help was coming. Then Google's Project Loon launched a fleet of high-altitude balloons into the stratosphere above the island. These tennis-court-sized balloons, drifting at 65,000 feet, became floating cell towers. Suddenly, phones that had been dark for weeks lit up with signal bars. Text messages that had been sitting unsent for days finally went through. Families separated by the storm heard each other's voices again.

Here is what moves me about that image. The people on the ground did nothing to make it happen. They could not climb high enough, shout loud enough, or build fast enough to restore what was broken. The rescue came from above — quietly, unexpectedly, riding on the wind.

Scripture tells us that hope works the same way. Romans 5:5 says, "Hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." We do not manufacture hope by trying harder. It arrives. It descends. The God who rides the heavens sends His signal into our darkest places.

You may be holding a phone with no bars this morning. Keep it on. The signal from above is already on its way.