The EUCHRST License Plate and Balaam’s Ass

Today, driving down the interstate to a work event I was not particularly eager to attend, a car pulled out in front of me.  I glanced at the license plate and started laughing:

EUCHRST

As in, I assume, the Eucharist.  And I wondered, what on earth would possess anyone to put this on the license plate of their car? 

I’m accustomed to casual Christian bumper stickers and symbols—the icthus, the “God said it/I believe it/that settles it,” any number of slogans and logos.  But the term “Eucharist” itself has only been used around me by the sort of Christians who would worry about trivializing the phrase by placing it on the back of a vehicle.

But then I thought to myself how strange it was to see that particular pointed license plate on this particular week and day at this particular time of my life, which has been rougher going than usual.  And, you know, maybe God is trying to remind me that—

Wait, I thought, wait.  Are you really trying to convince yourself Christ is speaking to you through the back of someone else’s car?

But also: God spoke to Balaam through an ass, didn’t He?

Going back to that Scripture today, I found myself laughing.  Three times Balaam tries to ride this poor creature past the Angel of the Lord with sword in hand; three times the animal refuses to acquiesce.  The Lord “opens the mouth” of the ass, Scripture says, who asks:

What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times? Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you? (Numbers 22:28-30).

God opens the eyes of Balaam, who is somehow not shaken by the phenomenon of an animal speaking like a human being but is very much shaken by seeing the Angel of the Lord standing in the road.  The Angel explains what is going on, and Balaam says:

I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me (34).

Glimpses of holy reality beyond the visual.  God speaking through signs that can easily be read as coincidences.  Maybe in our desire to be discerning we can at times adopt too cynical of a view, or forget that God has been known to use anything and everything in an individual’s environment to grab their attention. 

And, you know, the license plate said Eucharist.   God wasn’t trying to hide!  It wasn’t like a cryptic note from a fortune cookie.

The thing is, it’s been a rough week (and yes, I know it’s only Wednesday).  And the thing is, I came home dangerously discouraged after a difficult week at work and a challenging conversation with a colleague who really, really hates Christians, and who absolutely knows that I am one of them. 

The license plate today was a simple and much-needed reminder: I’m here always and especially where you least expect me.  Because that’s the thing, isn’t it?  There is nowhere we go that God is not—and yet at times we’re still surprised to encounter Him.  Our world seems so mundane, at times so colorless, that a reminder of sacramental reality in whatever form genuinely seems to stir the waters of our heart. 

It’s easy to be cynical.  I know, I know.  We’ve all met believers who “find God” in a candy wrapper, or who interpret any ambiguous sign without attempting to discern it.  But it’s important to keep our hearts open, and to watch and listen for what might be available to us especially in the ways we least would imagine or predict it.

God delights in surprises, after all.