The annual Christmas dinner for the ministers and spouses of the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans was held at the Ormond Plantation on Tuesday night, December 12, 2006. We had told the hostess for this wonderful ancient facility we anticipated having 150 present. On Friday before the big event, we called to ask them to increase that figure to 200. In post-Katrina New Orleans, our ministers and their families are hungry for fellowship with each other and for an excuse to get out of their homes–in many cases, a FEMA trailer–and celebrate.

As the director of missions for the association and responsible for the evening, I arrived early to make certain everything was in order. Even though I have driven River Road in Destrehan hundreds of times over the last 16 years, I was not certain precisely where Ormond Plantation was and ended up driving past the entrance and having to turn around and go back. Darkness had come early to our part of the Deep South and the heavy fog was complicating matters.

Since this plantation and several others in the area faces the Mississippi River, separated from that body of water only by River Road and the levee, fog is always a problem in the winter. Tuesday night, it was as bad as I’ve ever seen it.

A large sign announcing “Ormond Plantation” sits perpendicular to the two-lane highway and in the daytime can be read easily. However the darkness, the fog, and the lack of any kind of night-time illumination meant most of the invited guests would drive right past their destination.

I pulled into the parking lot, got out my flashlight, and walked through the heavy mist to the sign by the road. Then I had a decision to make.

Where should I point the flashlight? At the traffic on the road? Toward the entrance? On myself, hoping drivers would recognize me and turn in there? Or, perhaps upon the sign?

I elected to shine the light upon the sign, waving it back and forth on “Ormond” to catch the drivers’ attention. Everyone knew their destination and would be watching for some kind of sign.

As I stood there in the night performing this little ritual, a car turned off and headed my way. “Thank you,” someone called out of the driver’s window. “We couldn’t see.” A pickup truck was turning in behind them.

Ten minutes later, one of our guests, a volunteer at the Operation NOAH Rebuild office, walked out to where I was standing and volunteered to relieve me. “My wife isn’t here tonight,” David said, “so let me have the flashlight and you go inside and greet your guests.” We agreed he would stay until 6:40 pm, ten minutes past the announced starting time, then come inside for the dinner.

Throughout the evening, ministers thanked us for posting someone at the entrance with a light. “We were lost,” one said. Another said, “I called your mother tonight in Alabama.” When I registered surprise, he said, “We couldn’t find this place and the only number I had for you was your parents’ phone from last year when you evacuated from Katrina.” We laughed and he said, “So don’t be surprised when you talk to her tomorrow and she asks, ‘Who was that who called last night?’ We were just looking for directions.”

At the beginning of the program, I said to the ministers, “You and I are always looking for great ideas for Christmas messages. I think we’ve just been handed one tonight.”

“Remember how you were trying to find this place, and then suddenly in the darkness and fog, you came upon a man shining a light upon the sign?”

“In the Old Testament, God said, ‘The Lord Himself will give you a Sign. Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and Thou shalt call His name Emmanuel.’ That’s Isaiah 7:14. The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s Sign.”

“In the New Testament, the angel said to the shepherds of Bethlehem, ‘And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ Luke 2:12.”

“Jesus Christ is God’s Sign to our world. People are looking for Him and all that He brings. However, the darkness and fog of this world often obscure Him and hinder their search.”

“You and I who know Christ have a decision to make. We can shine our light upon ourselves and hope that those who know us will see and turn to Christ. A few might find their way.”

“Or we can shine that light on the Sign, the Lord Jesus Himself. Tonight, we shined our little light on the sign, and as a result, you made it here to the destination.”

“This Christmas season, let’s tell people about Jesus Christ. Let’s not point the light at ourselves, our churches, or our programs. Let people see Jesus, and many will turn in and find eternal life.”