A Time of Miracles

I called someone up the other day. There I was praying and suddenly I felt like I had to call this person up. For a moment I thought I should wait, I should finish the prayers, but I could not shake the feeling that I had to call. So I did it. I made the call. “Hey how are you? I was just thinking about you and needed to call.” And you know what I discovered? The person needed to talk. I was told that I called at the moment I was most needed. I had no idea of course, I simply felt like to do it and I did it. It is a miracle really. How else can I explain that? Oh I know that some will tell me it was coincidence and maybe it was, but I am someone who believes that miracles make more sense that coincidences so that does not work for me. Others will tell me it was nothing, but that is simply another way of saying it was a coincidence. Instead I will choose to believe it was a miracle. Then, I suppose, I say all of that to say that I believe miracles happen. If they happen now, I have no problems believing they happened before and will happen again. Maybe that is part of the reason I love this time of year. This time when we get to replay the old story of Christmas in our minds and sit in wonder at just how many miracles it took to make it happen. There was an older couple, too old to have children. They were unable to have children when youth still provided them the hope that such a thing would happen too. And yet with them is where the story starts in one gospel. Two dried up childless old people who are suddenly expectant parents. The stories of the older testament bubble up into the newer testament, and in the midst of the same old, same old, God starts something new. Then we come across a young girl, probably no more than 13, way too young to be having children in our day. We try to stop such things, and the truth is so did the people then, especially if the girl was not married, and this one was not. And she ends up pregnant too even though she is a virgin. Within 30 verses we have two pregnant women, a barren woman now too old to become pregnant, and a young woman too inexperienced for such a thing to be possible, and yet there they are participating in something new. And maybe that is why some people call this their favorite time of year. We recite and recall the ancient stories that bubble into today and await miracles of our own. We look around believing that there is something new to be had, the impossible to be made possible, and perhaps it can happen with us. That is a part of what makes that story great. Those two women were so unlikely. Who would have guessed an older barren woman would be used in such a way? Who would have guessed that a virgin teenager, not many years removed from running with bands of children would be used in such a way? Maybe you would, but I doubt I would. Then again I recall my own story. I was a little child with a voice so high some people asked me if I was a boy or a girl. That little voice did not change when other voices did. It was hard to get through a class presentation or even a new encounter without someone saying something about my squeaky voice. At times I did not want to talk in front of people. I knew how I sounded and it was best to keep quiet. Who would have guessed I would end up as a preacher one day, someone who has to talk in front of people? Not me. And so we celebrate this time of year and to many it is their favorite time of year, and I think it has something to do with miracles. God still uses people that no one would expect for amazing things. That means you too of course. You cannot be too old, or too young, or too shocking inadequate for God to use. Yes enjoy this time of year and know that maybe you too will be a part of a miracle.