church signs

Growing up in the south, I've always had a fascination with church signs -- those changing marquees outside of churches that try to snag passers by in two lines or less. Things like "God is here. Where are you?" or "Think you're special? Try walking on water."

Never mind that I'm Jewish and a hefty percentage of those signs don't have me as the target audience. They still make for interesting scenery, a couplet of religion mixed in with the redbud along the highway. Some signs feature jokes or puns (mostly bad), some try to comfort. Some are mean-spirited and horrifying -- the kind of signs you figure must be written by men with white hoods instead of white collars. But the little white church near our house in Arlington, Va., has had a few signs lately that I've remembered for the right reasons. The first came in January:

For peace, look for the better you within you.

The second is the one that's up now:

Fall down seven times; stand up eight.

It's a spiritual fortune cookie; bumper-sticker theology, to be sure. But if I saw a car with that sort of bumper sticker, I'd let it pull out in front of me. I wouldn't even swear at it if it stayed in the left lane with its blinker on.