Handwriting of God!

Monday, February 16, 2026

Js 1:1-11; Mk 8:11-13

Today’s Gospel invites us to find the handwriting of God in everything we see. 

The Pharisees test Jesus by demanding a sign from heaven. However, their intention was not to believe in him but to frame him with false charges. 

Jesus is not disposed to consider their demand. Instead, he denies their request with the certainty that people know who he is from his teaching and miracles. 

While Jesus puts the Pharisees in their place through his answer, their demand for a heavenly sign in order to test him has, at times, been our own temptation too.

We fall prey to such temptation, especially when we go through rough patches in life. More often than not, we dare to interpret the silence of God as His absence. 

Likewise, when life gets very mechanical, lost in the hustle and bustle of daily life, we tend to turn a blind eye to the everyday miracles that surround us. 

These are the moments in which we behave much like the Pharisees who pretended not to have seen the sign that Jesus was.

The Victorian Era English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem runs like this: 

‘Earth’s crammed with heaven/ And every common bush afire with God/ But only he who sees, takes off his shoes/ The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.’

Her words are a powerful reminder that we hardly notice the ordinary beauties of nature carrying God’s signature.

Let us pray that we may discover God and holiness present everywhere in the world. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar