Miracles
“Just
imagine what it would do for your religion if you shifted your sense
of the miraculous from some astounding feat of a master magician to a
profound appreciation of the miracle of rain.”
Thomas
Moore (A Religion of One's Own)
During
Lent, we've been making our way through the Gospel of John. Last
Sunday the scripture reading was the story of Jesus raising Lazarus
from the dead, after four days in the tomb. It was perhaps the most
astounding miracle of the many recorded in John's gospel—and only
in John's gospel. Jesus was by all accounts a gifted healer, capable
of changing matter and restoring life and health. Many of the people
of his day followed him because of that, and many still do. But think
for a second what a difference it would make in your own life if you
understood that miracles surround you everyday. What if we didn't
have to look backwards in time two thousand years to record a
miracle, but instead could see one by simply looking out our window.
I
was picking up limbs in my back yard over the weekend and noticed
that the ground was absolutely covered in tiny lavender flowers
smaller than the nail on my little finger. They had grown there of
their own volition, never planted by a human hand, and in spite of
being daily trampled by dogs. Why is that not a miracle? Night before
last, we were kept awake for much of the night with a thunder storm
that caused extensive flooding. Every half hour or so, lightening
split the sky, and sizzled to the ground, followed by thunder so loud
that Liza crawled, whimpering, under my bed. It washed the oak pollen
from the air and gave us all a brief respite from our allergy
suffering. Isn't that a miracle?
Everyday,
we witness countless miracles in the life of this blue-green planet.
If we opened our eyes and saw that we are constantly surrounded by the miraculous, our lives would be filled with awe. Keep your heart open to wonder today. You won't have to go far to find it.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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