"Extraordinary things"

And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying “We have seen extraordinary things today”. Luke 5:26

In the 5th chapter of Luke, Jesus is before a crowd teaching and a group of Pharisees are in attendance. The Pharisees were listening closely to Jesus’ words in order to catch him breaking their laws. Many people gathered and some were there hoping for healing from an illness and others were only there to say they had seen the famous Jesus. They were the autograph seekers of the time. While Jesus was teaching, a group of men carried a man that could not move onto the roof of the house and lowered him in front of Jesus. Because of the faith of the man Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven”. The Pharisees were outraged when they heard Jesus forgive the man of his sins. Jesus knew the Pharisees were angry and were questioning his authority to heal the man, so He said to the man, “Rise and walk”. The verses do not go on to say that Jesus healed any more people that day. I am sure some of the people had traveled many days to be in His presence, but they did not receive a miracle, or did they?

I imagine the crowd that had gathered around Jesus was much like the crowds we see today. Some were true believers and came that day to be filled even more fully with God’s grace and love. Some were probably there to investigate if Jesus was real. And surely some were there to find a flaw or to hear a word to discredit Jesus. The verses only mention one man being healed but the entire crowd witnessed and received a miracle. For the true believer, witnessing the miracle served to strengthen their faith even more and I am sure they went away even stronger than before. For the people who were there to find out if Jesus was real left with an even stronger desire to fill their hearts and minds with His words and love. And the people who gathered to find a flaw probably left with more questions in their minds. But now, instead of questioning Jesus they questioned their own lack of faith. Every person there witnessed or received the miracle healing.

I have always believed that, if we open our hearts and eyes, we also would see extraordinary things each day. We still hear about people who survive a terrible illness, or miraculously survive a natural disaster and we consider those events to be miracles. What if we saw the everyday events of our lives as miracles from our Heavenly Father? What if we saw waking up each day as a miracle and gift from God and we lived each day as though we were experiencing a miracle by just being alive. What if each minute we had to be with our family was viewed as a miracle and we never took a minute for granted. What if, as the sun rises tomorrow, we do not complain about being tired but thank God for giving us another day?  I often think about keeping a list of the small events, sometimes meaningless to others events, and the big events and trying to find a “miracle” during each day. Some days a miracle may be easy to find but many days I think I would have to look extra hard, but I bet I could do it. I would have to trust God to open my eyes to all that is happening around me.  Maybe it would be something as simple as passing a toddler and making eye contact with them and realizing that they are a special creation by God. I think miracles are everywhere I just wish I would look harder to find them. Maybe we can all ask God to help us see His “extraordinary things” each day.

Chad