The Latin word from which the English word miracle comes can be translated as “instrument of wonder.” To the extent that many people today acknowledge that miracles occur at all, they will describe them as the product of merely random coincidence. Even for those who believe in a benevolent God, many assume that miracles must be brought about solely by and through God. But if we accept that miracles are instruments of wonder, then we have to ask, who is playing those instruments? To be sure, our Heavenly Father is entirely capable of playing an infinite variety of instruments simultaneously all by Himself, but that is not how He operates. He calls each of us to grab our instruments and join in the wonder and the joy of the music. It’s OK if we don’t know which notes to play. Surprise is a huge element of miracles and wonder. The beauty of God’s orchestra is He is able to weave together melodies and harmonies that ought to clash and jangle and grate but instead blend together mellifluously into one great whole. If we find that our lives have become devoid of miracles, then we have to ask ourselves, why have we refused to play our instruments of wonder? Each of us have the capacity to bring light to the darkness, music to the silence, beauty to ugliness, hope to despair, joy to misery, and miracles to a drab and dull and non magical world. We don’t have to wait on random coincidence, or the stars to align, or a sign from the universe. If we don’t like the music around us, then we have to take up our instruments and change the melody. All things in the earth and in the heavens, including all of us, were created to reflect and echo back the wonder and the glory and the majesty of God, and every time we play our instrument of wonder, miracles reverberate back and forth between each of us that are adding to the music, making the world a much richer world of truth and beauty and goodness.
