Hello! My face may be unfamiliar to you, so let me introduce myself! My name is Saige Ross and I have been interning with Signpost Inn for the past few months. As my time interning with Signpost Inn draws to a close, I have reflected on what I’ve learned and what I’m grateful for.

1. What am I taking away from my time at Signpost Inn?

Have you ever cut an onion? Perhaps, like me, your eyes water to the point that you can’t see anything and you must pause cutting the onion so you don’t accidentally slice your fingers.

This summer, as I sat at the Booth’s kitchen table cutting onions, I began to tear up. My eyes stung and my vision began to blur. Liv took mercy on me and offered me a trick to stop crying. She told me to rub wet stainless steel like soap. With a fair amount of skepticism, I did so. To my surprise, almost instantly my eyes stopped stinging. Being able to see again, I returned to the cutting board and resumed my task of slicing onions. Rapidly, the sharp scent filled the air, soon followed by a stinging in my eyes and then tears.

Faced with the option of returning to the sink to rub wet stainless steel every two minutes or just letting the tears fall, I chose to let nature run its course and cut the onions with tears dripping down my cheeks. To my surprise, the less I tried to fight the tears, the better my eyes felt. It had never occurred to me that I could just let the tears do what they were designed to do and flush the irritant out of my system. That’s when it hit me: God created our tears with intentionality and purpose. Our tears are there for a reason. They have value and they deserve a seat at the table.

While interning with Signpost Inn, one thing I have learned is that tears have a place. Signpost Inn gives tears the dignity of being seen and heard. Somehow, when experiencing the value that Signpost Inn places on tears, I was able to truly see that Jesus values tears too. He gives them dignity in our lives and He gave them dignity in his own. When his friend, Lazarus died, he allowed himself to truly weep and grieve. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus cried out, he cried out with everything within him.  His tears, like ours, are there to flush out and ‘express’ the sting in our lives. And while our tears may not work as fast as wet stainless steel, when given space to do their job, they remove the sting for longer than any trick you can find.

Life is full of onions. So, the next time your eyes start to sting and tears begin to fall, instead of instantly trying to wipe away the tears they cause, maybe you can join me in learning to turn to Jesus who values every tear we cry. Sob the sting out in the presence of a savior who wants nothing more than to sit with you and weep with you until the tears have done their job and are needed no longer.

2. What am I grateful for?

You! I am grateful for you. The person reading this. This summer I have been blessed to make phone calls to a variety of people to tell them about Signpost or thank them for their involvement in it. To be able to talk to people about the compassion and intentionality of Jesus day in and day out is a privilege that I feel honored to have been given.

So, if you have heard my voice this summer, know that I am grateful for your openness to conversation and the encouragement you have shown. If you haven’t heard my voice this summer, let me tell you now, I am so grateful for you. Let me invite you to sit at the feet of Jesus and rest in the fact that he delights in you.

Thank you for your willingness to dedicate time and energy to reading this. It reminds me that God’s people are beautiful and that he works in miraculous ways. Thank you for making my summer here an incredible blessing.

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