Don't Miss The Miracle

I have a major announcement to make.  At the end of July, my wife Star and I will be having another baby.  Yes, I know - it's jaw dropping!  But it's true.  Star is about five months along in her pregnancy, and is very healthy.  The child will be a boy.  As many of you know, we already have two wonderful children (Haley who is 7 and Sheena who is 3).  Our next child will round our family out nicely (and completely!) at 5 people.  We are all very excited.

When I told a friend of mine recently about the eminent (and imminent) birth of our child, I announced it at the end of a long string of other activities going on in our lives.  In the midst of having a new baby, we will also be moving houses once again, keeping a Mission Street Church going, finishing papers for my DMin project, taking the girls to horse lessons and dance lessons, preaching at San Francisco Seminary, speaking in several other churches around the area, and many other sundry activities.  What my friend told me, though, shall remain with me...

Don't Miss The Miracle

And what he, of course, meant was that in the midst of the business and the difficulty of so many of life's other demands (demands that always exist, in every season of life), don't miss a once in a lifetime miracle that is occurring right in your midst at this very moment.

It occurred to me that my own example of a miracle in the midst of a morass of life's challenges, is not at all unique to me.  All of us are presented with miracles in the midst of life's details.

I was stuck in traffic on the 101 freeway the other day in literal bumper to bumper car alignment of confusion and anger.  An announcement came over the car radio that there was a car crash on the freeway that was causing the delay.  All of the cars around me were becoming more and more agitated, as many of them swerved in and out of the lanes to try to speed up the inevitable process of being stuck together.  Just then, the most amazing sunset spread itself across the sky.  It was red and blue and orange all combined into one and flowing in streaks across the horizon.  Most of the other drivers I could see were craning their necks to see the wreck on the road.  I was craning mine (and almost causing a wreck of my own) to look at the sunset.

Don't Miss The Miracle

In 1971, when the late President Richard Nixon was in the midst of one of the greatest political scandals to impact the United States (Watergate), he was approached by his younger daughter Patricia (Tricia), to ask if it would be ok to have their wedding in the Whitehouse.  Tricia, as it happened, was engaged to a young man named Edward Cox, and they were in love and they wanted to get married.  Nixon wasn't sure it was the best time to have such a wedding at the Whitehouse.  But they decided to go forward with the event.  And so, as Woodward and Bernstein and many other reporters were investigating the coverup which would embroil and ultimately doom the presidency of Richard Nixon, a wedding was held at the Whitehouse.  Nixon later reflected that the wedding of his daughter was one of the most magical memories of his entire life.  And he almost missed it.

Don't Miss The Miracle

This is the Monday of Easter week.  What Christ followers believe (and live by) is that some 2,000 years ago, a man named Jesus who was also God, died on a cross just outside of Jerusalem.  The gospel of Matthew tells us that from the moment Jesus entered Jerusalem, the Sunday before, the whole city was "a stir".  On the Sunday after Passover, however, what we call "Easter Sunday" only  a handful of women were present in a garden cemetery.  Only a handful of people were ready with perfume and balm for the dead body of their friend, and Lord, Jesus.  When they arrived at the tomb, it was empty.  And then there was a voice.  It was Jesus.  "Mary!".  Jesus was alive.  It was the greatest miracle in the history of the world.  And if it had not been for those women at the tomb, the world might have missed it.

Don't Miss The Miracle

This Easter Jesus still is alive!  What are the miracles, in the midst of your challenges, that God is making happen in your life right now?

Don't Miss The Miracle!

All For Now,

GB