Most miracles don’t come like a flash of lightning or words written in the sky.  However, we know that Jesus performed some pretty amazing ones during His ministry – like walking on water – changing water into wine – and giving lunch to over 5000 people with just a small portion of food.  There were even leftovers. The greatest of His miracles was taking on our sins, suffering for them, dying on a cross and coming back to life to prove that we will never die.

There are still miracles, but most folks don’t consider them as such.  They prefer to call them good luck, or destiny or anything but God’s intervention. We may not see the miracles as they happen – we may not understand why something happened as it did – we might even be surprised by them, but they exist.

When I was just 21, I worked for a loan company.  I was also planning my wedding.  It was a normal day at work.  As we were getting ready to close, two men entered the office.  Their heads were covered with ski masks and each brandished hand guns.  At first I thought it was a couple of guys from the next door bowling ally playing some weird prank, but that idea quickly left my mind when they ordered us to get down on the floor.

They knew where the cash drawers were, but we’d locked them up for the night.  One of the perpetrators pulled me to my feet and told me to unlock them.  My hand was shaking as I tried to insert the key.  I was terrified.  Finally the drawers opened and I was told to hit the floor again.

During what seemed to be an eternity, I thought about the wedding that wouldn’t happen.  That the life I was planning would never come to be.  I started to cry as I thought about losing my life and at the same time I prayed that God would spare me and the others from death that day.

We heard rustling and muffled voices coming through the ski masks.  Then the rear entrance door slammed.  The manager was the first to lift her head and see the intruders were gone.  She called the police and that opened the door to continued stress. Since I was the only one who got a good look at the guys, I was to appear at a line up the next day.  An article about the robbery appeared in the newspaper that night and included my name and address.  All of this aftermath was almost as frightening as the incident itself.

They never caught the robbers.  I went to a line up, but since they were masked, all I had to go on was their voices and physical size.  After looking at a number of men, they were paraded off right in front of me and got a good look at me too.  I couldn’t identify anyone, but I had been put on display for a handful of criminals.

Eventually the fear left.  I slowly realized that God was there, providing me with a miracle – an answer to my prayer.  This incident was one of those obvious, in your face miracles, but there are others that happen on a daily basis.  I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

“To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.”    

Walt Whitman