Encore Post: During Friedrich Wyneken’s theological examination, the interviewer said: “As is well known, miracles no longer occur nowadays. It only remains to be asked if there really were miracles in former times or not.” He then asked Wyneken: “What do you say to that?” Friedrich replied without further reflection: “God is a God who does miracles daily.” The young pastor had a point.
A miracle is something that happens that is beyond our ability to understand. As much as modern science has discovered, there is much more that we can’t figure out. Miracles break all the rules. The Earth’s tilt on its axis and orbit around the sun are just right to maintain life. The cycles of seasons, rain and snow, heat and cold, support the wide variety of life that gives us pleasure. How this all happens, we can barely understand. These and everything that gives us life are nevertheless very real, reliable, and regular. Besides these, God works through everyday people in our lives to make them what they are, all at the inspiration and provision of our Heavenly Father. God gives us all these things and more without fanfare and almost completely without thanks from us.
When we speak of miracles, though, these everyday acts of God are not what we have in mind. Our minds go to the healing and suspension of nature that Jesus performed, which continued in the ministry of the apostles. To a certain extent, this is deceptive. The events recorded in Scripture from the time of Abraham through the exile of St. John to Patmos cover two thousand years. As wonderful as miracles are, they did not happen all the time. Sometimes hundreds of years pass between them. Because they are all written about in the same place, we get the impression they were constantly present. Only in the ministry of Jesus was this true, and then only for the three years of his ministry.
It is possible that God does act in these ways today, but we do not know. Scripture does not say they have ceased nor that they will continue. What we do know is that God does care for us, heals us today, and we occasionally can’t explain how. The miracles we do know about, however, are right under our noses. In water, he adopts us as his children and creates new hearts in us. In bread and wine, he gives us his body to eat and blood to drink to forgive us our sins and give us everlasting life. The greatest is yet to come for us. On the day our life here ends, he will take us to be with him forever and on the last day, raise our bodies from the grave. On that day, when he restores us and all creation, that will be one of the greatest miracles of them all.
Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog
The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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