Miracles. So much has been written and said about them. Why do they occur and why does God seem to intervene with a miracle in one situation, and remain silent in others? Why did God use miracles throughout scripture, and why and how does he use them today?
I like the way CS Lewis explains miracles in his essay by the same name. He says, (paraphrasing) that the operations of the world and the laws of nature are indeed miracles, but because that is our “normal” we do not see the rising and setting of the sun, the growing of plants and of humans, and other processes that happen daily, as miraculous. When crops come in year after year, he says, and result in bread being made, we don’t regard it in the same way as Jesus multiplying the loaves, although it is just as much of a miracle. When grapes grow on the vine and are harvested for wine, he continues, we are not as amazed as when Jesus turns the water into wine, even though it is all accomplished by God’s hand.
When all the components of our body systems work so that we can live and move and think and breathe, we don’t see it as a daily miracle. Perhaps at times we will ponder such things but in the coming and going of everyday life, most people are not actively perceiving those things as miracles. The kinds of things we think of as miracles happen outside the laws of nature, beyond our “normal.”
Scripture tells us that part of the reason Jesus performed miracles was to confirm his identity, so that we would believe he was who he said he was. His miracles were to strengthen our faith, to “confirm the message” (Mark 16:20), as well as to be of benefit to the recipient of the miracle. The first prerequisite for a miracle is that there is a need. Through this need then, God has an opportunity to operate outside the laws of nature and demonstrate his power. If his miracles were only meant to amaze people, he could have done things that appeared more like magic tricks. Those things, too, would have been operating outside the laws of nature, but would not have served to demonstrate the larger miracles all around us.
Again, to draw on the wisdom of Lewis, “Each miracle writes for us in small letters something that God has already written, or will write, in letters almost too large to be noticed, across the whole canvas of Nature.” When Jesus healed a physical body, he was doing on an individual scale what the natural bodies of all humans do to heal themselves when there is sickness or injury. Many physicians will be the first to acknowledge, even with the advent of amazing medical advances, that they merely aid the body in healing itself.
Jesus healed people in a variety of ways while he was on the earth – sometimes he touched them, sometimes they touched him. Sometimes he prayed or spoke the word when the person was not even in his presence, and healing came. One time he told 10 lepers to go and present themselves to the priest – an act of obedience and faith – and ON THE WAY, they were healed (Luke 17). That phrase really jumped out at me as I read it – ON THE WAY. They had to start walking, with no evidence that the healing would come, they simply obeyed the voice of Jesus.
Maybe you’re reading this right now and you are in need of a specific miracle in your life; maybe there is a situation that you think has no possibility of being resolved, or you need healing in your body, or some other situation that only you know about. I don’t mean to oversimplify, but maybe this simple question is for you – what has he asked you to do?
Maybe your healing or solution happens ON THE WAY as you walk in faith – as you step out and start moving.
Maybe your miracle is on the other side of obedience.
Life By The Way 