It’s a Miracle! Or Was It?
“Miracle” may be the most overused – and inaccurately used – word in the English language. “It was a miracle Lisa didn’t get hit by that car.” “The Wildcats’ upset win last night was nothing short of a miracle.” “It will take a miracle for Jim to get that job.”
The odds for or against something happening might be long. It could be highly likely that Lisa would get hit by that car, or unlikely the underdog Wildcats would emerge victorious, or against the odds that Jim would acquire his dream job. But miraculous? Probably not.
“Miracle” can be defined by a surprising and welcome event inexplicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered the work of a divine agency. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.”
Jesus performed many miracles during His brief life on Earth. Probably a vast majority of them were not recorded in the Gospels, but there are plenty from which to choose. He also granted power to perform miracles to His disciples. Of course, the greatest miracle of all was Jesus becoming a human being born of a virgin. A close second was His resurrection from the grave.
Jesus walked on water toward His disciples in a boat and turned water into wine at a wedding. He gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, and also healed the lame, lepers, and paralytics. He cured a woman who’d had bleeding issues for 12 years and a man inflicted with dropsy. Jesus commanded evil spirits to leave people, and they obeyed. He restored life to several people who had died. The Lord also calmed storms and fed thousands with a small amount of food.
Well before Jesus walked on Earth, God the Father performed miracles to prove Himself to the Israelites and other nations. The ones that stand out in my mind occurred while Moses was attempting to convince the Egyptian Pharaoh to let his people go. The Israelites had been in bondage to the Egyptians for many years, and God decided it was time to end this situation and give His people a new home in the Promised Land.
The 10 plagues – in the order in which they occurred – were water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the killing of firstborn children. These plagues can be found in the Old Testament book of Exodus chapters 7 through 11. Despite the obvious supernatural aspect of each of the first nine plagues, Pharaoh refused to let the Israelite slaves leave Egypt.
He finally acquiesced after the 10th plague, but then sent his army in pursuit to capture and bring the Israelites back. As if those first 10 miracles were not enough, God then parted the Red Sea, allowing His people to safely cross but drowning the Egyptians behind them.
We may believe we see little in the way of miracles these days, but I’d venture to say a miracle occurs each time a sinner is saved by grace. We can be part of these miracles when we share our faith with someone who responds to God’s free gift of salvation.