Miracles

I'm pretty sure that we (Christians) have a pretty light view of miracles. Oh, we affirm them, alright. It's just that we affirm them too easily. Having a baby is a miracle. Living through an accident is a miracle. Or so we say.

I don't know about all that. The Bible seems to reserve "miracle" for a special purpose. It seems that the Bible uses the concept for one use and one only. The biblical concept of a miracle is a sign performed by someone acting as God's messenger that validates their claim as God's messenger. The prophets did them to show they were God's spokespersons. John's Gospel repeatedly uses the concept of "signs" as proof that Jesus was who He said He was. Peter spoke to the crowd about "Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know" (Acts 2:22). There are warnings that false signs will accompany false prophets. Miracles, you see, are intended to constitute evidence for God's messengers.

I admit, though, that it's difficult to avoid calling some things "miracles". Earlier this year my sister-in-law's fiancé was in a horrible wreck. The doctors told the family that he would likely never wake up and, if he did, he would be a vegetable. So imagine their surprise when, just a day or two later, he woke up. He is now in rehabilitation and coming along nicely -- not vegetatively -- despite their medical certainty. And the family gives all the credit to prayer. Just this last week a family friend went into surgery. This lovely young lady got -- get this -- a complete lung transplant. She had been waiting for years. She had stayed alive when doctors said she couldn't. She had been functioning on oxygen levels they said were not survivable. But today she has a pair of replacement lungs and is on the road to recovery thanks largely to the prayers of friends and family.

Miracles? No, not really. I'm not suggesting that he or she is a messenger of God. But they are certainly amazing testaments to the grace of God. Science might explain it away. It was the skill of the doctors and the magnificence of modern medicine. And I wouldn't want to take away from that. What I do know, however, is that "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17). And in a world where so much suffering takes place, it is very heartwarming to see God's gracious good gifts, whether they are by purely supernatural means or by secondary human skills. It all comes down "to the praise of the glory of His grace".