Several weeks ago there was a storm that went through the upper Midwest. The news reported that a tornado passed through a residential area and a baby was swept away. There’s no doubt that was an emotionally tumultuous evening for the family. However, after the storm was over, thankfully, the baby was found alive. There was tremendous relief to the parents and family of the child; the emotions were running high in the recovery of this child and we can certainly thank God for this child’s safety. Shortly after the baby was found, a headline was run on the Fox News channel, “Miracle Baby.”
What is so wrong in calling something a miracle? What is right about calling something a miracle? We don’t go around all day long calling everything a miracle. We recognize that certain events that occur in life are routine and happen by way of the natural course that life takes. God designed the world to work on a series of natural laws and these laws interact with each other and with us to ensure that we have a relatively stable world in which to live.
Gravity, for example, is one of God’s natural laws and it’s a great thing to have. It keeps our feet on the ground; it keeps our cars on the road; it keeps our refrigerator from coming into the bedroom during the middle of the night. I’m thankful for gravity! Natural law is the non-miraculous way God keeps the earth going.
There are times, however, when natural law appears to be suspended. For example, when a terminally ill cancer patient becomes better; when someone picks up a vehicle in order to free a trapped person underneath; or when a baby that has been swept up by a tornado or strong wind is found safe and sound. Such events are unexpected and unlikely. People see these events and pronounce them “miraculous.”
One of the dangers with saying that something is a miracle is attributing the event to God’s direct involvement. Three men once did this. They had a friend who lost all of his family under terrible circumstances, who lost all of his property to enemies who raided his lands, and who lost his health to the terrible disease. When they looked upon all of these improbably circumstances, they said, “God is punishing you!” God said to those men, “You’re wrong!” God hadn’t punished Job at all; Satan was the one who was responsible for Job’s suffering.
Another danger of this kind of thinking is concluding from the improbably events a good relationship with God. Someone once told me that he knew he had a good relationship with God because he had been saved from a falling brick wall and from pulling out into traffic in front of a semi-trailer truck. My question to him was, “How do you know that God wasn’t ‘saving’ you to give you time to repent!?” How do you know that Satan didn’t save you so that you would believe a lie?
Consider also that for every baby that is saved from a terrible event, there are dozens more that die. Where does this put God if the one He saved He did so by miracle? Does He not love the others enough to save them by miracle? The Bible teaches that the age of miracles has ceased ( 1 Corinthians 13:8-10). Working through natural law, however, God is fair to all; all are treated equally
Let us credit God for blessings received because as our creator, God is ultimately responsible for all things. However, let us not attribute actions to God that are beyond our knowledge. Doing so takes us away from God’s word. We walk on tenuous ground when we base our faith on our own presuppositions regarding improbable events. Faith, the Bible teaches, comes from hearing God’s word ( Romans 10:17). Let’s leave it at that.