"It Took a
Miracle"
" The Lord said to him, 'Get up and go to the street
called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of
"Does
your church believe in miracles?" asked my friend who suffers from
neuropathy.
My
response to her question was, "I would imagine that all churches believe
in miracles."
"Have you ever seen one?" she probed.
Now,
I paused a few seconds and said, "Sure, there are miracles happening every
day. There's the miracle of the birth of a child; there is also the
miracle of the changing of seasons in nature, and there are small miracles that
occur in our lives daily."
"No, not those," she said, dismissing their importance.
I
knew she was talking about miracles that actually "heal" the physical
body, and that was something that I had not witnessed, at least not one that
was so dramatic as to cause a person to "take up his bed and walk," not one that was rather commonplace in early
Christian circles. Nevertheless, my friend was desperate for some good
news for her condition. We ended our conversation by talking about the
things God provides for us daily. I wished at the time that I had
something "more tangible" for her. She is a believer, and it
never dawned on me to tell her about the miracle of salvation.
As
I read today's devotional passage, I was struck by Ananias'
obedience in doing what the Lord asked of him. He knew Saul to be an
enemy of Christ, yet he was willing to pray for him so that Saul would regain
his sight, a physical healing.
Saul's
"spiritual healing" most likely occurred on the road to
To
that question Saul, who later becomes Paul, replies, "Who are you, Lord?"
He calls Him "Lord," which answers his own question. He knows
the voice is God's. Ananias later baptizes him,
and Saul, alias Paul, the firebrand of the early church, begins his journey of
preaching the Gospel "before Gentiles and their kings and before the
people of
So--
there are many different miracles- physical, spiritual, and those born of
nature. However, the one that is the greatest and most lasting to
me is the miracle of salvation. As a young girl, I remember a church
hymn that I loved to sing. It told the story of God's love and of His
many miracles. In fact, as I can recall, the title was "It Took a
Miracle." Its refrain went something like this:
" It took a miracle to hang the world
in space;
It
took a miracle to put the stars in place.
But when He saved my soul, cleansed and made
me whole,
It
took a miracle of love and grace."
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the miracle of salvation. I thank you for dying on the
cross for my sins and for the sins of the whole world. Use our lives for
your glory in any small way so that others may see You
in us. Thank you, Lord. Amen
Nancy
Sabo