Miracles

Yesterday at our weekly staff meeting one of the shepherds asked us to list miracles we have witnessed and the room was silent. Really?! A room full of full time ministers and christian workers who could not share a miracle! (myself included). I am sure that some of the lack of response was due to the unexpected nature of the question and not wanting to give a short response without the whole story surrounding the miracle. But, I do think we are to be always ready to give an answer to the hope that lies within us… Perhaps if we had been given time to process the question there would have been more interaction.

Still, I was unnerved and it bothered me: do we not believe in them? Do we not know how to look for them? Do we try to rationalize them away? What has God done that no one else could do? “What can I give back to the Lord for the blessings He has poured out on me?” (Ps. 116:12)

Jesus performed lots of miracles and they authenticated the reality of who He was. Perhaps we don’t need to have who He is proven to us since we already believe. And yet, God is still in the business of miracles. What does He do to remind me of who He is and all that He does in, through and in spite of me? He often does things behind the scenes and He hides in plain sight. Maybe that is why Jesus told parables.

I do have a miracle to share – God made sure that Jim was hired by our alma mater, even though the position was not coming from his discipline of study, because He alone knew that we would need to be back in California when Jim got sick. I am not sure how things would have happened if we were still in Illinois. He worked the situation for our best interest in spite of the facts that should have kept us from being hired by Biola.

And now, after many years of adjunct teaching at Trinity, the school is “closing” and I am without a job. Jim would probably been retired by now but maybe not… God knew and worked things out. Wow!

Of course, the greatest miracle of all is that Jesus loved me enough to redeem me; In doing so He changed my life, its purpose and continues to reveal himself in and through me. Every day may I be a living witness to His transforming power.