Miracles

Yesterday I was thinking about miracles and I was thinking... "Umm... I am a good person so why haven't any crazy, Oprah Winfrey worthy miracles ever happened to me?"

These thoughts may have started because I was hanging out with my friend Holly who was on The View when she was little because she saved someone who had fallen through an iced-over lake. Like really. How awesome is that.

You hear those stories about people who lose their jobs, find an envelope with 10,000 dollars on the street. They turn it in, and are rewarded by the owner giving them the money.

Or people who lose something really important and retrace their steps and FIND IT? Yeah. That has NEVER happened to me. I still wonder where my laptop is from sophomore year of college. Yes. I managed to lose a laptop. and my real pearl earrings. Ugh. Definitely searched every square inch of my house and they are still no where to be found. Why can't that awesome instant of "AH-HA!" ever happen to me?

and I mean. I know someone that has won the lottery. TWICE.

I watch the news, seeing how a woman needed a kidney and their just happened to be a man who was a match. He donated his kidney. They got in touch five years later and fell in love. That is SO awesome! I get chills just thinking about it.

Buuut. Of course. Getting caught up in this sometimes makes me just feel like such a loser. I have never done CPR on anyone, found someone's missing diamond ring or even really donated money at Christmas time to support a less-fortunate family.

I think sometimes I get totally caught up in the wrong idea of 'miracles.' It is not about attention or why I am not at the right place at the right time.

We need to think that a beautiful sunset is a miracle. The way little kids light up when they see their Daddy pull in the drive way after work. How you are craving Dreyer's Butterfinger icecream and the grocery store has ONE carton left.

Miracles don't have to be glamorous. God uses big things and small things, HUGE stories and little coincidences to show His love for us.

Do you know what else? He uses US to perform these miracles. It's not like I'm not smart enough, or pretty enough, or quick enough, or athletic enough to perform his miracles. Sometimes I feel like I don't have enough money for God to use me for monetary miracles. Sooo.. Should I give my measly grocery budget to the homeless man on the corner whose sign says he has kids starving in a tent? Miracles have NOTHING to do with our salary or with our job connections or how many tax-deductible donations we make. They are all done through him!

This man came to Jesus at night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him."

*John 3:2

I want to be a 'hero' so bad and be published in People's Extraordinary People of the Year magazine issue! (Not to mention they win a ticket to the SuperBowl... :)

I'm learning though. God doesn't want to use me right now for a intense medical rescue, or inventing a new type of "post-it" note. There are other types of miracles that he has in mind for me.

Whether it's just getting through an extended family dinner with no yelling or screaming or having the friend you have invited to church 17 times in the last year call you Saturday to see what you were up to Sunday morning...

These little bits of joy are miracles and God is just as proud of us for listening to our calling as those who donates blood all the time and have provided for 6 blood transfusions. (Plus, needles make me queasy, I can't help it.) :)

Look around, miracles are everywhere. Promise, promise, promise. (Example: More than one person reads this blog! :)

HE said to them, "For truly I say to you, If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

*Matthew 17:20