Where Are the Miracles?

So here’s what I’ve been wondering about this week. Why does it seem like things always turn out the way they’re supposed to? Why don’t we see more Great Interventions from God? More unquestionable miracles?

We got a history lesson in church on Sunday from a man who spent his 50th wedding anniversary touring all the famed Roman locations where Christians were fed to lions and burned at the stake. (Note to self: Not how I want to spend my 50th anniversary.) He told us about Polycarp, a second-century bishop who was burned at the stake. The good news is that he was 86 and faithful to the very end; the bad news is that faithful or not, it had to hurt. Now surely God could have rescued Polycarp in some dramatic fashion. You may be thinking, “Well if He didn’t rescue Jesus, what makes you think He’d rescue this guy?” I have to go with the obvious answer—that Polycarp wasn’t key to the whole salvation of mankind. I mean, what’s the impact on all eternity if God swoops down with an angel or two or even a couple dozen pigeons and pulls Polycarp out of the fire? Couldn’t He have done this for the old guy—and for His own glory? Instead, Polycarp died. Sure enough. Just what everyone expected. The pagan crowds probably all cheered as he went up in flames.

And then there’s my friends’ son, who died of a disease that has a 98 percent mortality rate. Doctors told them he would die. Friends all hoped for a miracle, but very few were all that surprised when he died. Why no miracle, God? Think how you could have shaken up the medical community! What a mark it would have made in the research journals.

I know that miracles happen every day. I’m just wondering why we don’t get to see many of them, especially the big ones. Why isn’t God more flamboyant?

All I can come up with is this: He must think the greatest miracle of all is when His children suffer greatly and yet continue to glorify His name.