Meditations from Zion

Acts 14:10b-11
…”Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk. When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!”

Miracles are tricky things. In Lystra, the people who witnessed a crippled man healed at the word of Paul, completely mistook this show of power and called both Paul and Barnabas gods (Hermes & Zeus respectively). They responded to that event, that miracle, within the context of their own culture.

We are no different. We often take what we don’t understand and integrate it into what we do understand. We do all we can to make sense of it. It is very difficult to absorb something so outside the norm and make it fit our world.

Jesus could have done many more miracles than he did. But how would people understand them? Even today, we try to attach formulas to miracle working: oil anointing, laying on of hands, prayer, fasting, and commands, just to name a few. We are trying to recreate the circumstances in which we hope healing can take place.

But here’s the truth: it’s not about the words, the actions, or even the faith. It’s the relationship we have with Jesus, with God, that sets the stage for miracles. It’s our ability to “hear” the Spirit… feel the Spirit… know the Spirit is ready for us to broker a miracle. God chooses. God says, indicates, reveals: this one but not this one is to be healed. This circumstance, but not this one, is to be changed. This mountain, but not this one, is to be moved.

Jesus knew that miracles could overshadow the message. He chose carefully. Each miracle had an intent and a message. This overshadowing was the case for Paul and Barnabas in Lystra. Paul knew the man could be healed… but perhaps Paul missed the timing or the method. Paul was not Jesus. Paul was fallible just as we are fallible.

We all want miracles in our lives. It might be for the healing of a loved one, ourselves, or a transformation of a situation. I pray each day that God would heal my daughter of fibromyalgia. It is a debilitating and chronic pain condition that is overwhelming for a teenager. And yet, I know, with each day that she is not given a miracle of healing, there will be another day, a moment, when that miracle will come for her… it may not look like the miracle that either of us expect, but it will come. Miracles cannot be dictated… not in their timing or their effects.

I have said before and will say again, miracles are not private. Miracles happen for the person, yes, but also for the witnesses and bystanders. As believers, we must trust God’s timing. And when the miracle comes, give praise and acknowledgment where it is due.