"It was also established and plainly endorsed by God, who showed His approval by signs and wonders and various miraculous manifestations of His power" - Hebrews 2:4
Last night I stumbled upon this old picture of Ezekiel.
This picture captured a miracle. For real. Those of you "new" to us may not know Ezekiel's beginnings. They weren't pretty. This sweet face cried or screamed literally for 6 weeks straight. I am not exaggerating, ask any of our family. The touch, eye contact and affection we gave him sent him into fits of rage, followed by glazed over moments of shock. Nights were the same. We were walking zombies, on our knees in prayer and fatigue. We had scores of family and strangers praying for our sweet Zeke.
On October 23 (above) we were in a mall playground. I set him in this tunnel as he cried for me to hold him; then cried harder when I picked him up. I climbed away and peeked around at him. He stopped crying mid cry. He smiled. This picture was the first time he wasn't crying and looked me in the eye. I started balling and I called Ryan, saying, "It happened. Zeke decided to be loved. And I just fell head over heels for him." It was in an instant and I seriously could see a transformation in his eyes in that moment.
"It was also established and plainly endorsed by God, who showed His approval by signs and wonders and various miraculous manifestations of His power" - Hebrews 2:4Today's topic to weigh in on is miracles. I have a number of friends that are skeptics. Even believers that doubt in the day to day hand that God has on their lives. Until we adopted our sons, we were in that category. Maybe miracles were some smoke and fire that televangelists used to boost ratings or Hollywood through around to promote sales. God opened my eyes to His presence in every element of our life.
Those skeptical friends of mine that I love so dearly for the color they add to my world; we've had some good talks about miracles. Trying to explain with science and reason the unexplainable. Truthfully, as a midwife and an adoptive mom, I feel like the biology of conception, a fetus, a placenta and birth, those things are more easily explained than all the "stars that align" when an adoption occurs. I can tell you (as so many adoptive families can too) all the crazy, ridiculous, unreal scenarios that went down while we were getting our boys home to us.
What about you? How has parenting changed your thoughts on miracles? Are you in the skeptic category? What kinds of conversations have you had with believers and non-believers on the unexplainable?
We definitely saw miracle after miracle with our son's adoption! We love to share that with believers and non-believers as well!!
ReplyDeleteI believe in the God of miracles. BUT I believe that He's God, not Santa Jesus. Which means His miracle may not be what I had in mind when I prayed for a miracle. Also He's God, I'm not. Sometimes the "miracle" I've asked for, that seems so right, so perfect, isn't in His plan for me. Sometimes, evil just wins (at least for now) and the miracle/requested intervention doesn't happen. This is how I/we survived not just our most recent (truly miraculous) adoption, but several of the "failed" adoption attempts that came before it, as well as how I cope with feeling undeserving that "our miracle" in adoption was granted, while others' were not.
ReplyDeletePS: Also I believe God has a sense of humor. He has used things about me/my life that I've hated, to bring about the miraculous, many MANY times.
So true. His answer isnt always what we want to hear.
Delete“Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.” -Saint Augustine
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite quotes because it makes me realize that the physical world we see is not necessarily God's world. In His world, nothing is impossible.