A touch like no other
"Miracle... miracle... we ask for one more miracle. Miracle, miracle, we see them every day. His answers come like manna, with every passing day..."
Growing up as a "church-baby", I participated in children's choir musicals and had the privilege of starring in a musical showcasing God's miracle defeat using Joshua's leadership, where the Jericho walls fell flat to the ground after the people had marched around the city for 7 days. (Joshua 6) I was 12 then and played the part of Marla, a goody-two-shoe girl who encouraged everyone to have faith in times of adversity. I still remember the song that I sung; been with me always, though it is 10 years since then:
It's easy to have faith when things are going well
To trust in God when life is not so hard
But when the problems come and the answer's not in sight
God wants us to believe that He will make things right
Please help us Heavenly Father,
To trust in You today.
You've always answered in the past,
Help us find Your way.
We need You Heavenly Father,
We'll trust in You today.
You've always answered in the past...
We will find Your way.
To the 12 year old me, Miracle the musical was just a story, or at most, a well-crafted fable by the Christians of old. Something that I would put in the same category as what I got from Television (Macgyver! Triple Nine :P Hur) or the movies and my enid blyton books.
But now, 10 years forward, I see the beauty of God's hand in miracles. The miracle of life. Building bricks of learning in educational institutions have taught me that nothing happens by chance in this life. There was Biology in secondary school that showed me the immaculate, clockwork-like system of the human body in all its complexity and glory. Then there was Geography at JC which widened my mind about processes in the natural realm and how I would never fully understand what it takes to move mountains, water the earth or shatter it in an instant. To me, there was definitely a higher being out there that intelligently designed and controlled everything. It was an intuitive sense that He exists which I could not reason away.
Though I heard the other side of the story from (mostly angry) philosophers, academics and theorists, I was never convinced by evolution and the big bang theory- how could morality and the human soul be derived from a random collision in outer space? Love as a chemical reaction? Yes, but it's more than that, a sacred and essential part of our personhood. The emotion and titillating experience which almost all grown human beings yearn for, sing about, sustain a celebrated institution for, die and fight for- this must be put in place by Someone who knew and experienced for Himself this love, to the fullest and highest degree.
So I come around to modern-day miracles. In the words of one of my dearest, "childbirth is a miracle". 10 million things can go wrong but there is a populated earth of 6 billion since the beginning of time because of this process. Being alive is a miracle, for the body can shut down (and has shut down on many people) during the night if there are difficulties breathing and the heart doesn't get its oxygen. I would venture to say that feeling happy is also a miracle, for chemical imbalances of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine in the brain can easily make one feel down and out. What makes us tick? What causes us to be alive and free? What prevents us from crumpling like a leaf? It is all held in a delicate balance by One, and seeing these processes as miracles in their own right make me ever grateful that I, a limited and inconstant soul, am not in control of this shell constructed out of flesh and blood.
In the things that happen around the world and in the newspapers, I see God calling out to His people through miracles of His own doing. "Miracle Baby Jolene- 2-month-old unscathed in Muar car crash that killed four in her family" was in the headlines just last week. I looked at her picture and knew that there were great plans for this girl. There must have been, for God to allow the crash and save this dear girl found 10m from the crash sight in an overturned car seat.
True, God may not have needed to "save" her if He hadn't allowed the car crash in the first place, but that's another story for another time. The fact that the devastating and horrific crash happened and that she only suffered light bruises when the rest of her family died is a true miracle that none can deny. So young and vulnerable, yet the older members of her family perished first. It was God's touch... one of the miracles which He orchestrated to defy logic, sense, and show mercy to us. When baby Jolene grows up and finds faith in God, she will have a heightened sense of purpose when she finds out that His protective hand was on her to pave the way for her life here. She has things to do, people to love, lives to bless and a story to share...
I delight in God's miracles and find that they make me love my Father more. With such a loving touch in my life, I cannot ask for more.