Miracles Part 2

I believe in miracles. Most of nature is miraculous and awe inspiring. My body is miraculous with its ability to move, feel and heal. Childbirth is a miracle. Relationships are a miracle. I am surrounded by miracles. However, I often don’t see them. I’m either too distracted or preoccupied to notice, or I dismiss them as coincidence. Usually, I seek to rely on my own strengths and abilities.

Recently my oldest daughter suffered a heart attack. One of her coronary arteries was completely blocked. It is a miracle that she survived and is healing well. Or was it a miracle? Was she just lucky? Just a lucky coincidence?

Earlier in the fall, the heaters stopped working in the church offices. It was a miracle that we found the loose electrical connection in a junction box that should have nothing to do with the heater circuits. Or was it a miracle? Were we just lucky to find it?

Last week, a friend called and asked me why several of the outlets in his dining room stopped working. He described some of the symptoms and the fact that it used to work. I was stumped. We prayed for God’s help to find the problem. Going to his home, I checked the outlets that weren’t working. I pulled the outlet away from the wall to check the connections. They were good. My friend plugged in a lamp to this outlet. I continued to check other outlets and traced it back as far as the kitchen. On the backside of the same wall was an outlet and a switch. I began to open this box and stopped. The wires were too short. There was more than one wire under a terminal. There were splices inside that were short and precarious. I decided not to pull out the outlet. It was working and I was afraid I could do more damage than good by messing with it anymore.

Just to make sure, I inserted a GFI circuit tester to verify the grounding.

“What was that?” my friend asked. “Do that again!” He was in the other room and out of my line of sight. I inserted the GFI tester again. “The lamp just blinked again.” I inserted the tester again and wiggled the outlet. He said the lamp plugged into the non-working outlet blinked. Wow! Now I knew where to look for the trouble. Sure enough, there was a wire that worked loose and was making an intermittent connection. I tightened it up and the problem was solved. Was this a miracle? A lucky coincidence? Or an example of my amazing prowess at troubleshooting?

“Come and see what our God has done, what awesome miracles he performs for people!” (Psalms 66:5) For me the key word is “see.” What do I choose to “see”? I can choose to see miracles or coincidences or luck.

In my limited experience, I find that God brings people to me as a way to do something miraculous. I wouldn’t have found the problem with the church heaters without the previous efforts of Craig Peterson or JD Watson. JD was willing to climb into the attic to trace the conduit that fed the heaters. That pointed to the junction box with the loose connection. I would never have found this on my own.

My friend with outlets just happened to have a GFI tester that he insisted I use. He just happened to plug in the lamp to an outlet that wasn’t working. He just happened to be in the room to notice the lamp blinking. A miracle? A lucky coincidence? It was no accident that he was in the right place at the right time. I would never have found the problem without his help.

“Yes,” says the Lord, “I will do mighty miracles for you, like those I did when I rescued you from slavery in Egypt.” (Micah 7:15)

“And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose.” (Hebrews 2:4)

I guess miracles can be mighty or minor, but still miraculous, nonetheless. I am learning to seek humility in God’s presence when I ask Him for help. I am learning it is okay to ask for His help with non-spiritual things. I am learning to lean more on Him than on me. I am learning to seek His strength instead of my own. Not easy but worth it.