Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord . . . who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water. (Ps. 114:7–8)
Our culture loves its “miracles.” The Americans’ victory over the Russian hockey team in the 1980 Olympics is still famously known as the “Miracle on Ice.” When Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and his co-pilot successfully ditched their stricken plane on the river in Manhattan and saved over 150 lives in 2009, it was called the “Miracle on the Hudson.” COVID-19 vaccines have been widely called “a modern medical miracle,” and for fans of old movies, Santa Claus was “The Miracle on 34th Street” in the 1947 film.
Yet belief in real miracles—divine interventions in human affairs that are inexplicable in any other way—is dismissed as religious superstition. When ancient Israel talked about miracles, they meant the real kind—the kind where “the Lord turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water.” When New Testament Christians talked about miracles, they meant the real kind too—the kind where the Lord turned water into wine.
A newly converted Christian husband and father was challenged by his old buddies who didn’t understand or approve of the change in his life. “So you really believe that Jesus turned water into wine?” they asked skeptically. “Of course,” he said. “In my case, he turned beer into furniture!”
G. K. Chesterton put it well, as he usually did: “The incredible thing about miracles is that they happen.”
Tell everyone you can about the miracle on your street.
Bob Black is an emeritus professor of religion at Southern Wesleyan University. Along with Keith Drury, he coauthored the denominational history, The Story of The Wesleyan Church.
© 2022 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
