FAITH COLUMN: Subtle Miracles

The following article is an opinion piece and reflects the views of only the author and not those of AllOnGeorgia. 

We have all heard “go big or go home”. Spiritually speaking, this is an easy way to begin to view how well we think we serve the Lord. In our way of thinking, big things count for more, little things, well, they are just little things. Keep in mind though, God doesn’t look at it that way at all. God is much less impressed about how many people read this article than he is by the crying Kindergartener I comforted last week.

We tend to think in numbers, God thinks in personal connection. He shows us that throughout the gospels in the life of His son, Jesus. If we were to list all the miracles of Jesus, perhaps the least impressive would be his first one. He turned water into wine at a wedding party at his mother’s insistence. That may seem frivolous and maybe even outside of how Jesus should have used his miraculous powers to you, but let’s take a closer look. He wasn’t just warming up to better miracles, he was talking to me and to you.

 A reluctant Jesus obeyed his mother’s request to have his disciples assist in his first miracle. The jars that Jesus told his disciples to fill were six stone water jars used for purification. Each could hold twenty or thirty gallons and they represented ritual Jewish purification and hence the Mosaic Law. Storing wine in these jars was a gross misuse of them.

When we look closer at the miracle in John chapter two, we see that the wine which filled the stone jars was representative of the blood of Jesus coming to fulfill the Law. The stone jar – Mosaic Law, filled with the finest wine – the blood that would reconcile mankind to God the Father foreshadows the greater miracle of the cross. Jesus said, “I did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.” Matthew 5:17. Then there is the number of jars, six. The number of man for which every miracle of Jesus was performed.

What seems like an unusual or meaningless miracle points to our own way of thinking about how best to serve God. It’s not the grandiose gestures we do for the Lord that stand out to him, but rather the moments in which we are filled to overflowing with Jesus. It can happen anywhere, anytime. Jesus was at a wedding surrounded by people celebrating when he revealed his glory.

Where will you be this week when you reveal Jesus’ glory? It doesn’t have to be on a platform or in front of a large group of people. In fact, it most likely won’t be; it will be one on one with someone who needs God to meet a need. When you step out in faith to meet that need, however small it may be, that is the miracle. Jesus didn’t act like a performer and make a show of his first miracle. Only his disciples and his mother were privy to how it really happened.

The true miracles need no advertisement or credit because the only One to get the credit is God alone. Do you want to be part of a miracle of God? If your answer is yes, then He certainly wants you to be. But don’t look for it to be a large scale, public event that puts the spotlight on you. Be prepared to be used in the back near the kitchen.

When Jesus turned water to wine, he wasn’t rubbing elbows atthe head table, he was back near the kitchen. Isn’t that the last place you want to be seated when you go out to eat, in the back near the kitchen where the traffic of the waiters disrupts your meal? That is the point, we must make ourselves accessible to the least in the room. There, we are poised to fill jars that are empty; a miracle that believers continue to perform in Jesus’ name.

 

By: Nadolyn Lee

 

Nadolyn has served in church ministry in the areas of music, children and youth for over thirty years. She is creator of ‘Dirt Road Believer’ YouTube channel where she produces Christian devotions every Tuesday and Thursday. Her home is in Summerville, GA with her husband and four children.