“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” (CS Lewis). I think that when we recognize miracles, the part of the miracle that we focus on is that God’s will managed to line up with our will. In other words, we desperately wanted something - to find our missing wallet, to do well on a job interview, that our loved one could beat cancer - and, through divine intervention, that thing we wanted came true. But if this is our approach to miracles, then we’re coming at them from the wrong direction, and we are doomed to experience a lot of frustration and heartache and to wrongfully conclude that miracles just don’t happen to us that often. As the Bible Dictionary explains, “The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them.” If we ask for bread, God will not give us a stone. If we ask for a stone, God still won’t give us a stone. We may want something so bad that we plead with the Father over and over and over, but our Heavenly Father knows the end from the beginning. He knows that sometimes we think we are asking for bread or a fish, but these miracles that we ask for are actually stones and snakes, and that we will hurt ourselves and others if God were to give them to us. If miracles seem random and accidental, then it is not because God is capricious or spiteful or haphazard about blessing our lives, but rather it means that we are capricious and spiteful and haphazard about seeking to align our will and our understanding with our Heavenly Father’s will and understanding. If the definition of a miracle is that our will and the will of the Father are in harmony, and miracles aren’t happening that often, then the best question we could be asking ourselves is how can we do a better job at aligning our will with our Father’s. Christ couldn’t walk three feet without performing another miracle not just because He was perfect and the Only Begotten Son, but also because His will was perfectly in sync with His Father’s. If we want more miracles in our lives, then we need to exert ourselves to bring our will into harmony with our Heavenly Father’s. The more open we are to the idea that God is actively trying to bless and improve our lives, the more we will begin to read the story written in small letters that CS Lewis describes. At first it will only be letters. Then whole words. Then paragraphs. We may start out touching the Lord’s grace like a pond skipping across the surface, but the more and more comfortable we get in trusting the Lord and placing our lives in His care, the longer we will be able to abide and endure His presence. Our spiritual myopia will slowly be corrected, and we will be able to take in a little better the letters that at one time were too large for us to see. I know that for many of us miracles are delightful and sporadic moments of surprise and wonder, but with patience and faith and hope we can bring our will into perfect with our Heavenly Father and live a life that is one long, uninterrupted miracle.
