Perhaps, sometime in your life, you have wanted something wonderful to happen, for yourself, or for someone you cared deeply about. Maybe you asked God for a sign of divine power and personal care to intervene in a particular difficult (seemingly impossible?) situation. A key question is: “Am I trusting God, or do I want this, no matter how it comes about?
Yes, there are unseen and mostly unknown forces and powers at work all around us, but magic is generally a matter of illusion. Magic relies on secret formulas spoken, specific gestures or actions to be performed correctly. Magic pretends to bypass nature or to manipulate the divine order in order to accomplish its results.
Miracles are based on the reality that God, who desires wholeness and wellbeing for all is, by choice, embedded in all that is. But God does not, and will not, violate the laws of nature or overpower our free will – no matter how much, at times, we wish God would.
Miracles do occur – all the time. Do we have eyes to see and to recognize them? Life is a miracle. Love is a miracle. But these, and any other miracles, don’t materialize on our terms. We tend to want results here and now. God operates on another plane that is not bound by our sense of time and space. Good happens we know not how. And God has the ability to bring about unexpected blessing out of the worst disaster (e.g. Jesus crucified).
When Jesus, in the gospels, performed amazing signs and wonders, he served as an instrument, a channel between the suffering person and God. He was clear that it wasn’t about him (no ego). When people were convinced by Jesus’ presence, goodness and love that they (or those they were interceding for) were precious, beloved of God, their faith allowed divine power to flow to and through them. It was pure gift, not earned, deserved, merited.
It’s not our prayers, no matter how many or how heartfelt, it’s not our sacrifices, it’s not our vows or promises to God that move God to act. (Hopefully these things move us to become more open, trusting, loving). It’s our attuning our desires to God’s desires that makes the biggest difference. It’s our coming to believe that God is with us and within us no matter if circumstances change or not. Maybe that’s a miracle too?