I possess two tools that enable me to make treasures that will outlast my lifetime.  Crafting with these two tools brings me hours of delight as I make keepsakes for others.   I have spent thirty-five years learning and practicing this art.  The two tools are my camera and my computer.  About two and half months ago my trusty camera suddenly refused to work.  It wouldn’t do anything but show me a screen with a nonsensical message that took me in a never ending loop.  I spent a day researching and trying solutions.  Then I called the factory technician who was helpful, but declared that my poor camera would require repairs I couldn’t afford.  I was crushed.  Then our oldest son, also a professional photographer, volunteered one of his older cameras that he wasn’t using.  I was elated!  It was just like mine, so I didn’t have to relearn anything.  Meanwhile, my ailing camera sat on my desk for two and half months.  Every week, I’d try this or that in a vain effort to resurrect it.  Just maybe it would start working again.  I have always been uptight about photographing clients without a back-up camera.  Professionals should have two functioning cameras for just such a scenario as I experienced.  If one camera dies, the other can be used to finish the shoot.  So altho I had my son’s camera, I was still hoping for mine to work.  Each time I picked it up, I would pray.  “Lord, you know what’s wrong with my camera.  You know how much I’d like a back-up camera.  Would you see fit to fix my camera?  It would mean so much to me.”  Several days ago I went thru this routine yet again.  Pick it up, hope it would work, nope, try this or that, pray.  Only this time, wonder of wonders!  The screen cleared and my camera began to work normally!  I have no explanation except that God chose to grant my request.  I can tell you that whenever I pick up my camera, I’m grateful.  And I will serve clients with less fear of failed equipment since I now have a back-up.

How do you react when you hear about something that seems to be an unexplainable act of God, i.e., a miracle?  My mind often races to explain it naturally.  I question all the details, trying to make ‘sense’ of it on a human level.  How do you deal with miracles?  Do you fear that if you just accept it at face value you will be denying logic?  Do you worry about being a simple minded, gullible believer-in-whatever someone tells you?  Do you feel you’re committing intellectual suicide?

I’ve struggled with this even when an unexplainable event happens in my own life.  Should I shake my head, shrug my shoulders, and just go on my merry way?  Or should I fall down in worship and give thanks for something I can’t comprehend?

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so my ways are higher than your ways
    and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:8-9

Accepting something God does that cannot be explained is not throwing logic to the wind.  Really?  Yes, if we believe in an Almighty God, why wouldn’t we believe he can do things that are beyond our limited power to do or understand?  Miracles are outside our realm.  Accepting them means that we acknowledge our limitations and don’t put those limitations on God.  What is impossible in our dimension of earthly existence, is possible in the realm God inhabits.  When we accept a miracle and fall down in humble worship, we are affirming that we are citizens of a realm including and yet beyond our physical existence.  We participate in a kingdom that supersedes earthly kingdoms.  We serve a king who orders his heavenly kingdom far differently than our world order.  In fact, his order is upside down from our earthly order.  Oh, how it goes against what we naturally believe about ourselves and our world!

“But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”  Matthew 19:30

 Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God . . . You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people . . .  But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Mark 10:27, 42-45

We understand that things aren’t always as they appear even in our earthly realm.  Many things are counter-intuitive.  Take this little health tidbit a doctor shared with me recently.  She asked if I sometimes deliberately cut down on drinking water so I wouldn’t have to be inconvenienced by having to go to the bathroom too often.  Sensing a trick question, I hesitated to answer, but managed a nod.  Did I know, she asked, that not drinking actually makes you feel like you have to go more often?  The concentrated urine caused by lack of sufficient water intake irritates the lining of the bladder and it sends false signals to the brain.  The bladder wants to get rid of the irritant ASAP.  Drinking lots of water dilutes the urine and allows the bladder to hold more before signaling the brain to void.  Drink more, go less frequently.  Counter-intuitive, right?

On the other hand, we may be able to accept a miracle, but what happens when we pray for a miracle and God doesn’t come through?  Can we then accept that God doesn’t order his kingdom the way it makes sense to us?  We plead for a child to recover from a serious accident, for a young father not to die and leave his children.   We want murderers to get caught and be punished, for good people not to suffer, and those who hurt others to be stopped.  Yet, bad things happen constantly.  Why doesn’t God intervene with his almighty power to stop evil, pain, and death?  He has.  Jesus intervened in human history to win over evil, pain, and death by his own death.  Those who put their faith in him escape the results of evil, pain, and death.  Right now we experience that escape on a spiritual level, but someday we will also experience it physically.  God’s plan is for our complete deliverance from this lower realm into his own bright kingdom where there is freedom, abundance, peace, and enjoyment on all levels.  Now we participate in his kingdom by faith, but then it will be by sight.  Then we will see our King and his glorious kingdom and it will all make sense, miracles and all!

“For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom . . .”  Colossians 1:13

 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  Revelation 21:4

“He will swallow up death forever!
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears.”  Isaiah 25:8