The Miraculous and the Everyday

Pin It Ever been witness to a miracle? Ever experienced one personally?

I mean a TRUE miracle. Not "the girls did their math without complaining," although at times that certainly feels like a miracle. Generally there is some explanation for that other than something only God can do.

I have.

Let me set the stage. Picture a really hot day, and you're in a car with three children. One is 7, one is 4, one is three weeks old. You're recovering from surgery and haven't even been released to drive yet. Your car contains a significant portion of the material things that matter to you. Your car does not, however, contain food or water. Your car is moving approximately 2.7 miles per hour, and your drive on an ordinary day takes 2 1/2 hours. You have money in your pocket, but can't find a single place open to buy food and water. Because of the food/water situation, and because of the extreme heat, you don't want to turn the air conditioner off because when five hours into the trip, you're less than 20 miles from where you started, you know it's going to be a loooooong trip. Oh, and twelve hours into the trip, let's add throwing up by the 4 year old, and thirteen hours into the trip, let's let the 7 year old join in.

All of this awful stuff ... what is your biggest fear?

I'll tell you what mine was. It wasn't the hurricane we were running away from. It wasn't that we would starve to death or never make it to our destination. When the phone would ring, what I asked people to pray, the one gauge that I watched most closely ...

My biggest fear was running out of gas.

I received a miracle that day. We did arrive safely at our destination, eighteen hours after leaving our house. We got the kids fed and hydrated, and everyone was fine.

The miracle? Eighteen hours in a car with the air condition on the entire time ... and we arrived with half a tank of gas left. Physically not possible. God heard the prayers and did it. Not a single question in my mind about it.

Another miracle ... Troy has been released from the hospital. The funeral we were all planning is postponed, hopefully for many MANY years. The recovery is not yet complete, but there is every hope that there will be a complete recovery. Amazing.

Wow.

WOW!!

I think this is where it tends to get a little weird though. We want to explain away the miraculous. Well, because the car wasn't actually MOVING most of that time, it used less gas. It's amazing the advances made in the medical field these days.

I've been reading two different blogs for quite a while now; they're both over there on the sidebar. Both have posted recently about miracles and how sometimes you have to really just recognize the miracle in things that to the outside world don't look so miraculous. Both are more eloquent writers than I am, so I’ll just link their posts here.
Bring the Rain - Miracle
My Charming Kids - No Matter What
(btw - both of these are FABULOUS blogs, and both of these families are in need of prayer. If you're not already reading these blogs, you'll be blessed to add them to your blog list.)

My prayer now for my brother and his family is that they would recognize the miracle. I don’t know why some receive their miracle answer and some don’t, or why the miracle looks so different for some than it does for others. I don’t think it’s possible to look a miracle in the face and come away unchanged, if the miracle is recognized for what it is, rather than explaining it away. Pray with me that this miracle is acknowledged, proclaimed even! Pray with me that lives are changed because God chose to answer prayers in this manner.

To God be the glory, great things He has done.