Do You Believe In Miracles?

It has occurred to me through interactions I have shared with church members, family members, friends, colleagues and others, that often times we think of the miraculous as only being some huge, mind-blowing, time stopping, space bending, occurrence that defies the natural order of things.  And that is not surprising knowing that the God who has done, does, and will do all of these things again, was the One who created it all (time, space, and a natural order) from nothing to begin with.  However, I also think the fact that we are even able to ponder the nature of miracles, is in itself a miracle.  That I am able to be surrounded by people who manage to love me in spite of my boisterous, opinionated, and unbelievably disorganized personality is miraculous to me.  The fact that the God of perfection chooses to love people covered in what the Bible says God can’t even look upon, and offers to make them clean, is a miracle.  And all of this (thought, relationship, and cleansing) is evidenced inside of the natural order, established and cared for by God, and enacted using both natural and supernatural means.   

Mystery is no problem for me.  It’s wondrous and awe inspiring.  Mystery is exciting and scary.  It reminds me that I am filled with powerful presence and that I am insignificant, all at the same time.  That’s easy to get behind and get passionate about!  In 1983 my grandfather was told he had an inoperable brain tumor, and that he should enjoy the remaining couple of months of his life as best he could.  We buried him in 2006.  Six months after his diagnosis, and with NO treatments, there was no sign of the tumor that was supposed to kill him.  Our whole family was in awe.  Granddaddy had a powerful testimony to share about God's healing power.  I know first hand of God's miraculous healing.  I have witnessed it.  That is easy for me to believe.  However, “small” miracles, things that I can see and maybe rationally understand how God brought them to pass, are the ones that I tend to take for granted or dismiss as "coincidental".  But at their heart, they are no less miraculous than God’s parting of the Red Sea.  They, like the afore mentioned parting, are the ways in which the God of the universe moves people forward, toward the intended goal of a more abundant life.  What do I mean?

My brother in law shared a missive yesterday on his Facebook page in which he explained his belief that a series of events, which fell into place at exactly the right moment and allowed him the blessing of being able to purchase a home for he and his family, were beyond the explanations of luck or chance.  This was not a proclamation of a “prosperity Gospel”, but a realization from Tom that in the stress and fear that he would be "camping out in friends’ backyards", God provided opportunity and shelter despite the fact that he was an “accepted” federal employee who wasn't receiving a paycheck.  In spite of the government’s instability and inability to function, and Tom’s inability to do anything to “win” in this situation, God provided.  God used people in the process to bring about a victory.  It wasn't a time-stopping, sun standing still Joshua moment, but it was miraculous none the less.  It was an instance that strengthened his faith by reminding him that God was ever present in his trials.  (Have you tried to get money out of the government lately?  MIRACLE!)  And that is important.  Okay, but that is just another story of someone who has means and things worked out well for them right?

A young grandchild of one the members of a church that I serve, who has had significant trouble with heart valve function, has been through several surgeries and is only slightly over three years old.  Thankfully the surgeries have been successful, and she has been given a positive prognosis, but she has had pneumonia three times this last six months.  Her grandmother recently thanked God for that fact in morning worship.  She shared the miracle of revelation born out of doctors finding that one of this precious child’s valves wasn't working to its fullest “accidentally” while they were dealing with the pneumonia.  It is a smaller problem that can be worked on without the extremely invasive procedures that she and her family have had to endure previously… still significant in its nature, but less burdensome in its own way.

     Pneumonia as a miracle… the thought defies logic, and yet there it is.  God giving revelation to people whose hands and understanding can be guided to bring healing.  Is that any less significant than a child whose illness is cured by laying hands on and praying over them at the altar of a church?  (I would point out that in the process, both have happened.  Prayers have been lifted and then answered through the touching of hands that are gifted by God to heal.) 

I feel inclined to share that I am in no way a cessationist.  That is to say that I don’t believe that God has stopped being in the business of “big” miracles.  Nothing can be farther from the truth.  I just hope that I have grown enough in my faith that I am able to recognize that my definition of miracle is too narrow if it seeks to define God’s agency and action as only being outside of Creation and its processes, or as only being inside of them.  I hope that I have grown enough to accept the fact that God’s answers aren’t always going to be what I want or expect; but are always what they need to be.  Or maybe what I’m trying to say is that as I do bring my petitions to God, I’ve stopped trying to tell God how to do the job I am asking Him to do in the first place.  A job that He is infinitely more qualified to handle… that is to hold me in my weakness and to care for me and those around me when we aren’t able to do so.  And God's answer to my prayers is often not to deliver me or others from suffering, but to walk with us through it, and then to transform that suffering and use it to change my life, their lives, or the world.

The Almighty God... the God with ability to create everything from nothing… the God whose hand is delicate enough to set electrons in their orbits around an atom, and is enormous enough to set moons into their orbits around planets, and planets into orbits around stars… this same God is certainly capable of rendering miracles in ANY form that the Creator of all deems necessary.  Who am I to say, “It’s not big enough!  I can explain how that happened so it must not be phenomenal action on the part of God.”? 

Please know that I have not come to these positions in a vacuum, nor independently of Scripture’s guidance.  I have found that there are as many evidences of God’s miraculous intervention, in large undeniably beyond time and space kinds of ways, as there are of faith filled people who have prayed for miracles that were either not allowed, or were answered using natural means and guidance of circumstance.  (They are included in the stories of Abraham, Joseph, Job, Ruth, Esther, Hosea, Samuel, David, Mary, Peter, and Paul, to barely scratch the surface of a long list.)  In each of these people’s lives, the single constant was their belief in the God who wasn’t only present in the miracles, but also in the "ordinary" places as well.  Extremes of expectation or complacency will be sure to lead to either disappointment or lethargy.  Neither can sustain faith for very long.  It is a faith that comes into a balance that allows for belief no matter what the circumstance.

I am learning daily to have faith in spite of the fact that I don’t know what to expect.  It is not an attempt to redefine what miracles are, but rather, it is an attempt to remove the restrictions I may place on what the miraculous can be.  It is an attempt to learn to appreciate God’s action and agency in all the places and ways that they may occur.  It is an attempt to listen to and look for Christ’s presence in the world as ultimately, God became human to change eternity with a “natural” form that experienced the “small” things that come with being a part of creation.  And, ultimately, it is an attempt to learn from that divinely natural form’s teaching, preaching and example as I seek to live in and share the mystery of His Gospel.  But I am also watching all of the underwater documentaries that I can, looking for a mulberry bush that has planted itself on ocean floor because I know that someday I’ll see it.  Why?  The Bible tells me so.  (Luke 17: 6)

Your Servant in Christ,

Chris