Miracles

Mark 6:35-44 (NIV)

By this time it was late in the day, so His disciples came to Him. "This is a remote place," they said, "and it's already very late.  Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat."  But He answered, "You give them something to eat."  They said to Him, "That would take eight months of a man's wages!  Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"  "How many loaves do you have?" He asked.  "Go and see."   When they found out, they said, "Five—and two fish."  Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.  So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.  Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to His disciples to set before the people.  He also divided the two fish among them all.  They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.  The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. 

Miracles.  Do you believe in miracles (No, I’m not trying to emulate Al Michaels quote at the end of the United States underdog hockey team upsetting the mighty Russian team in the 1980 Olympics)?  Have you ever witnessed a miracle?  You haven’t?  What about the miracle of birth?  Think about it.  You began by the fertilization of a 100 micron egg cell with a 40 micron sperm cell.  A micron is one-millionth of a meter or about 39 millionths of an inch.  So who you are today—your size, strength, intellect, reasoning, senses, capabilities, etc----initially existed no larger than 0.0055 inches, a microscopic piece of dust.  Tell me that’s not a miracle.  The anatomy and physiology of the human body is a miracle.  The beauty and order of the universe is a miracle.  The fact that you are relatively healthy and stay alive despite so many forces of nature that attempt to destroy you is a miracle.  Oh, indeed, miracles exist all around us.  And I’m only mentioning physical miracles of nature, there’s a whole other realm of miracles involving the spiritual (e.g. salvation, forgiveness, eternal life, etc.).

I have heard or read that there are about 100 miracles in the entire Bible and 35 performed by Jesus.  Of course, He performed many more that are not recorded (John 21:25).  A miracle is defined as an act performed that involves the suspension or relaxing of applicable physical and/or natural laws and the enacting of supernatural forces (bibletruths.net).  Jesus performed miracles to show that He was truly the Son of God.  He had power over nature (water to wine, controlling the weather, walking on water), power over evil forces, power over disease and death, and power to multiply sources of food as this story describes.

Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 people is a common and popular story taught in children’s Sunday School classes, so well known that most of us are not affected by it anymore.  Yet, the fact that it is the only miracle of Jesus recorded in all four gospels should grab your attention about its importance.  It illustrates Jesus’ care and provision for people who follow Him, reinforces His claim that only He is the bread of life (John 6:35), and declares that He is the source of achieving satisfaction with your life.  Note that the Scripture indeed declares that all 5,000 were satisfied because of Jesus’ provision.  Note also that if you choose to follow the model of Jesus in living your life that you should pray and give thanks before each meal.

There are miracles of life all around you, you just need to appreciate so many things that you take for granted.  Jesus is the source of those miracles and like He demonstrated so often during His ministry on earth, He is willing to perform miracles in your life if you are willing to believe and to follow Him.  What miracle do you need to occur in your life right now?  Pray about this, but also be faithful and live your life in complete trust in Him to take care of all your needs.