Little Miracles Everywhere

Is anything too wonderful for God?
Genesis 18:14

After 90 years of trying to have a child, Sarah overhead a traveler tell her husband that she would bear a child. She laughed at the thought.

To her, it seemed absurd and ridiculous. After so many years of heartache and pain, so many years of her womb aching to bear a child... would she get such pleasure at such an old age?

Fast forward a few thousand years, and two men are walking the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. A stranger joins them, and asks them what they're talking about and why they look so sad. They don't realize that stranger is Jesus.

When we are entrenched in grief, it's hard to believe in goodness.

Sarah couldn't believe God's word that she would bear a child, and the disciples were so blinded by their sadness they couldn't see that the stranger with them is the man they miss so dearly.

When we are in the middle of a storm in life, it's hard to remember that the sun will shine again, or even that the sun still shines even behind the clouds. It's hard to hold on to that hope because you're just focused on trying to survive the storm.

Wouldn't you have laughed at God too, like Sarah? Wouldn't you, like the disciples, not have seen that it was Jesus? Would you have believed the women who said the tomb was empty? It's all just a little absurd and ridiculous - the thought of a woman having a child at 90 or Jesus rising again.

But perhaps that's because God is a little absurd and ridiculous. Is anything too wonderful for God?

These stories happen over and over again in our scriptures: Daniel in the lions den, Jonah in the whale, Mary bearing God's child, Jesus calming the storm... again and again, these are stories of redemption beyond human comprehension. They happen in our world today, too: the woman who gets naturally pregnant after 6 failed rounds of IVF; the family who adopts after years of trying to have a child and they find wholeness together; the widow who remarries and finds love again; the soldier with PTSD who finally sleeps through the night; the new life that grows after a forest fire.

Big and little miracles happen all the time.

They're not always the miracle we wanted, or had hoped for. And sometimes, we are so entrenched in our grief, we have a hard time believing that goodness is possible, but my friends, nothing is too wonderful for God.

Keep your eyes open this week. What little miracles are you seeing?