These days, the word “miracle” gets thrown around pretty easily.  Saying “it’ll be a miracle” if someone shows up on time or remembers where they parked their car.  Heck, there’s even a mayonnaise that’s so creamy and whipped, that it’s a “miracle.”  Although I’m sure the individual persons  involved are quite happy that their friend showed up on time, that they don’t have to wander around a parking garage or that their sandwich tastes delicious, I’m pretty sure God didn’t have a direct hand in any of those things.

Once upon a time, the word miracle meant something.  People in Biblical times knew that miracles were proof of God at work in their lives.  They could tangibly see them with their eyes, hear them with their ears and feel them with their hands.  But most importantly, they believed them with their hearts.  There were numerous miracles recorded in the Bible like the great plagues, the division of the Red Sea, Jonah in the whale’s belly and thousands being fed from just a few loaves and fishes, just to name a few.

But these days, most people have forgotten about these miracles or just think of them as something from the past, not something that still applies to our current world.  Yes, the dictionary still defines miracle as: a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.  But how many people actually still believe in them?  Especially when we’re so quick to name a rather mundane daily occurrence as a divine wonder?

God still very much blesses us with miracles.  A person who is completely healed of cancer with no medical “explanation”… the woman who suddenly has the strength to lift a car off of her child in an accident… the child who was never supposed to live past the age of 2 becoming a fully functioning adult… these are all true miracles.

Even the small, still voice of the Holy Spirit inside of us guiding our actions and decisions is miraculous in and of itself.  Guiding you to take that job that ends up giving you the flexibility you need to be with your ailing mother, telling you to take another route to work that morning when there ends up being a bad accident or leading you to take a chance on that blind date that will later become your spouse.

Miracles still exist.  We just have to have our eyes and hearts open to recognize them.