Do you think that miracles still happen in our world today? According to one poll, the vast majority of Americans, 82% of them, answered: Yes.
Though one doesn’t know what some consider “miraculous,” the 82% are, nevertheless, correct. Everyday, perhaps without ever realizing it, we are witnesses to amazing miracles of God’s power.
Just the other night a series of powerful storms swept through the area. For about one-half hour straight the rain poured down in buckets. That hardly seems miraculous until you ask where all that water comes from.
Actually, it’s part of a process that goes on day in and day out, largely without our being aware of it. Each day the sun lifts millions of tons of water into the atmosphere through evaporation. Each day, in turn, frontal systems deposit the moisture around the globe.
One writer said that if God would have set up gigantic steam engines around the world, pumping water from the oceans and spraying it across the earth, the sound would be deafening, and we’d probably pay more attention to it. Instead, God performs the miracle in what appears to be a very natural way.
At this time of year many of us have been harvesting vegetables from our garden. Do you ever stop and think of what a miracle that is? A tiny seed is pushed into the ground. It germinates and grows into a plant. In the weeks that follow, the plant absorbs light and heat from the sun and drinks in water from the earth. In a miraculous way that one seed is multiplied–sometimes a million-fold!
There are other miracles that are even more astounding. But since they recur day after day we tend to take them for granted.
A Greater Miracle
The same is true of what has to be one of God’s greatest miracles.
Quietly, without fanfare and hidden from sight, God continues to perform a miracle deep within human hearts.
The miracle? Faith.
The means? His Gospel.
The outcome? Not mere temporal good, but eternal gain that actually defies description.
This is why Christian education is really about miracles–not the flashy kind that draw attention and make headlines, but rather the quiet and unassuming miracles that affect eternity.
Jesus Himself was more interested in the latter. One time He healed a deaf-mute by placing His fingers into the man’s ears and touching the man’s tongue (cf. Mark 7:31ff). He said, “‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘be opened,'” and the man could speak and hear, perhaps for the first time in his life.
Next thing you know, Jesus “commanded them that they should tell no one.” Why? Because Jesus did not care to be known as One Who merely healed bodies; after all, His much greater miracle was His role in the eternal salvation of souls!
A Great Opportunity
Sometimes people wonder whether the time and expense of providing a program of Christian education are worth the while. It costs money to operate a Christian Day School. It takes a lot of volunteer time and dedication to run a Sunday School. It even takes a determined effort to conduct regular devotions at home.
Are these things really worthwhile? That depends. It depends on whether we remember that through them God continues to perform the miracle of creating, building, and sustaining faith.
Put it this way: If Jesus would be visibly present to bless your children every Sunday, or school-day, or evening at the supper table, you’d want them there, wouldn’t you? Well, Jesus is present. He is in the midst of those gathered in His name. He is there to touch hearts and to bless lives through His Word. It all seems so natural, but when we think carefully about it, it is a miracle!
In addition, one day we’ll recognize that the results too are nothing short of an absolute miracle.
–Pastor James Albrecht