God of Miracles II: The God Who is There

"I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." Isaiah 41:19, 20

Miracles do not need to be, or remain, mysteries in order to be miraculous. When scientist discover that the events found in Exodus could very well have happened, and happened through natural causes, we need not be disturbed. The Lord of Creation can use His creation as He wills. There are miracles that are miraculous simply because they were the answering of a desperate hope, and not necessarily an unnatural or unexplained occurrence. We have just as much right (and obligation) to glory in these as we do for textbook miracles.
There are still plenty of mysteries, though: the Trinity and the Incarnation, as well as the inner workings of the atonement (will we ever know the depths of horror that encompassed "My God, my God! My hast thou forsaken me!"?). However, what kind of miracle is happening is not nearly as fascinating (or vital) as the fact that they do happen. Why, exactly, do they happen? Why does God bother to invoke the miraculous in our lives, from the healing of deadly diseases to finding a dollar on the sidewalk? What is the purpose of such an involvement? In short: Why do we not have the God of the Deists? Answer: "That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand," i.e., that we might be aware of the reality of God, aware of a Reality beyond our own.
The very nature of God (in that He is triune) reveals an inner disposition of intimate communion. Seeing as how a creation reflects its creator, we were built for that same intimate communion (1) with each other, and (2) with God. We were not designed to walk this world in unblissful ignorance of the God behind and within it. God "made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth." Why? "That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him..." (Acts 17:26, 27). Our Creator is bound up in intimate communion, and He makes that communion know to us in our lives.
The miraculous are safeguards against practical agnosticism; they are sharp reminders of the reality of the God we are to know if we are to live (Note: Suffering does the same thing. What was Job's reward for going through his afflictions? "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye seeth thee." Job 42:5). Even if a miracle can be explained as a result of natural causes (as though natural causes are separate from the God of Nature), even if we somehow figure out how it happened, we are still left with why it happened. Lewis said something similar in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: just because you know what something is made of does not mean that you know what it is. Just because you worked out the mechanics of a thing does not mean you have even come close to scratching the surface of that thing's anteriority or teleology. Always remember: the basis behind every miracle, and the end to which it takes us, is the God who is there.

"God above,
Invade my little universe.
Let me behold You,
And know You more..."
-Jon Vowell

God of Miracles

"When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of valleys. I will makes the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." Isaiah 41:17, 18

Perhaps it is the plague of the Western mind to no longer be presenced with miracles. I can only laugh at the skeptic who demands to see a miracle right now in order to believe. Even if God was some how on our leash and danced when we played music, they would not believe if a miracle came, nor even if one came back from the dead, for two reasons: (1) we have the Scriptures to reveal God, and (2) we have "debunked" miracles outright with an unhealthy (and unnatural) dose of Naturalism. We can disprove anything these days (including history, or existence itself). There is a reason "uncivilized" countries in Africa and the Middle East, as well as "barbaric" peoples in China, still tell of miracles these days, whilst we "enlightened" few never see any. We are willfully ignorant; we ripped out our own eyes in an effort to see.
The church is infected with this plague too. We have gotten a serious case of practical agnosticism; we do not live like our God is a God of miracles. He is powerful (an awesome God!), or lovely, or amiable, or cruel, or even holy, but not miraculous. Yet the scriptures seem to stress the miraculous as God's calling card. Look at our verse here. It was not enough that God merely gave them water. Just look at how He would give it: rivers in hills? fountains in valleys? water in the wilderness? springs in the desert? Impossible! Ridiculous! I.e., miraculous. God seems to revel in showing that He can when we say He cannot, and we seem to revel in saying that He cannot all the time. "God is nice for Sunday, but what about the rest of the week? A man must eat, and dress, and wash, and live. I'll take care of God on Sunday and myself the rest of the time." We are the only creatures on this planet that do not see God as God. We do not see Him as the same miracle worker He was and always is.
Have you seen angels? visions? blinding lights? parted waters? plagues upon enemies? No. Has the money come in? the test(s) passed? the love one saved? disaster averted? the question answered? the guidance given? found a penny on the side walk? Yes. We are always surrounded by the miraculous, for the miraculous is merely God's activity in this world. As such, every moment of our lives is a miracle. Every amazing incident and circumstance of our lives is a miracle. Every breath and heartbeat is a miracle. As the Church, the body of Christ, we are a miracle, meant to be a miracle to the world. To live in a miraculous world again is to simply realize the reality of God's intimate connection and involvement with our lives. If only we had eyes to see such things.

"God of Miracles,
Come and be with us.
We will trust in You,
To deliver us.
Kind and noble King,
Kneeling in the dust.
So predictable,
So Mysterious.
God of Miracles."
(by Twila Paris)
-Jon Vowell

The Dramatic and the Subtle

"And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He hath spoken: 'Behold, I will bring again the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.' So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down." Isaiah 38:7, 8 (Rev. Marg.)

God's miracles are not His "bail out" maneuver. He does not do them simply because someone needs bailed out of their problems. He does them for one reason only: to reveal His control of all things and His will for all things. His control is dramatic, but His will is subtle. "This sign shall be so that you will know that the Lord will do this thing that He hath spoken." The dramatic miracle (i.e., moving the sun back ten degrees) was a seal of certainty on the subtle miracle (i.e., Hezekiah's sickness).
Such a thing has happened before. God did not send the ten plagues on Egypt because there was no other way to save His people. The plagues taught Israel, as well as Egypt, Who was in control. They were the dramatic miracle; the grand, subtle miracle of His will was the covenant of Mt. Sinai. No flash, no flair; just God's promise that Israel would always be His people. Why was the promise certain? "I am the Lord thy God, Who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt." (Exodus 20:2) The dramatic made certain the subtle.
Jesus was the same. The grand, subtle miracle of the Incarnation was preluded by the dramatic of a virgin birth, angels in the heavens, and a star in the sky. The grand, subtle miracle of Christ's ministry was the redemption of the atonement, a redemption hid within the agony of the cross. What purpose served all that flair and publicity, all those calming of storms and the feeding of thousands? So that all would know that He is who He said He is: the Son of God, the Messiah come to redeem all people. Again, the dramatic made certain the subtle.
The grand, subtle miracle of the Christian life is that intimate communion with God (John 17:3, 20-23). There will be moments, if we are awake, when drama comes, when the bill gets paid, when the work gets completed, when the disease his gone, when the unconquerable obstacle is suddenly overcome. We are to revel and glorify in such things, but remember that they are not the keynote of our lives. They are "signs" pointing us to the real keynote. They are but glorious echoes leading us to the real song, a song that is much deeper and more hidden, that is "further up and further in." It is the song of the inner workings of our communion with God, of our union with the most terrifying and intoxicating of presences, a song that will culminate in a crescendo that is never-ending. The dramatic makes certain the subtle: these miraculous things that happen in our lives are precious reminders of the reality of our communion with God. He has not, will not, and shall not forget His beloved; and all these signs make that sure. They are, however, mere taste of the water that we will one day drown in with wondrous rapture.
If you ever find yourself asking how these things can be, watch for or remember when those precious reminders came, and remember that "these shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He hath spoken."

"Heaven is with us,
In the moment, every moment,
Heaven in the here and now.
What bubbles to the surface are mere glimpses
Of the deeper Life to come..."
-Jon Vowell