joy of nine9

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The modern world heaps scorn on those who have experienced the inexplicable This cynical attitude simply serves to coerce most legitimate eyewitnesses into silence; only quacks speak out. As a result, of course, society’s prejudice is simply reinforced.

At least Catholics believe in miracles, although sometimes more in theory than in their day-to-day lives.The word “miracle” comes from the Latin word for wonder and, literally means “a sight to behold.” In fact Jesus promised us that His followers would perform even greater miracles than He did because in fact it is because we live in Christ and Christ lives in us that miracles occur.

Jesus accompanies His words with many “mighty works and wonders and signs,” which manifest that the kingdom is present in Him and attest that he was the promised Messiah (Acts 2:22).

Thus encouraged, courageously or perhaps foolishly, I have already written about two of the many miracles which are an intricate part of my life, a physical healing, where my spine was straightened instantaneously and a single tank of heating oil which simply never ran out all winter. However this particular incident was even more unnerving because we observed the inexplicable with 20/20 vision. When my 17-year old daughter, who questions and argues about everything, grudgingly admitted that only a miracle could explain what happened, I cannot keep silent.

This puzzling divine intervention was really frivolous. We would have simply made do without a miracle this time. When God supplied us with a multiplication of heating oil, we were desperate; we needed heat when it was -25 C outside in the middle of a Canadian winter. Yet why would God multiply decorative panelling?

Michael was installing oak wainscoting in the bathroom, hall and down the main staircase of our 140-year old home. My husband had held on to this wood for twenty years and now that we finally owned a home, he finally was free to install it. Unfortunately even before the first landing, it was obvious that there wasn’t enough of the dark oak. We resigned ourselves to using a wider, lighter panel for at least one side of the stairwell, an entire wall.

Let’s just say that after my husband completed the entire stairway in dark oak, there was just as much left as before he had even begun. Just to make sure we realized the full ramifications of this divine intervention, the pile of cut ends was at least 2 m. high, making the total wood waste more than the amount of the uncut wood before my husband had even begun the stairwell in the beginning. This demonstration of extravagant love shocked us. God was probably laughing at our confusion and questions.

Why would God bother to work a miracle like this? Usually, any intervention from God has filled a real need. All we could come up with is that He indeed is in charge, in control and will meet all our needs effortlessly. It has nothing to do with fasting, prayer or our holiness but has everything to do with His grace, mercy and sense of humour when we live as His children.