A few years ago I was witness to a small miracle, another
reminder of God’s kindness.
It happened while the mission I worked for was conducting
training for church planters. One of the sessions was about managing your
finances, and the trainer was a Christian financial planner who had once been
a church planter.
I was seated a couple rows back when he walked to
the podium. I could tell something was not quite right because he seemed to be
having trouble talking. Then he passed out.
But the “small miracle” part was—he didn’t really fall. Even
though he lost consciousness, he didn’t just drop
to the ground. He sort of glided. From where I was sitting, it was almost like
invisible hands gently lowered him to the floor.
We called 9-1-1, and by the time the paramedics arrived, he
was conscious, sitting up, and fully recovered. But the thing I’ll never forget
is the way he drifted to the floor, almost in slow motion.
Of course I can’t prove it was a miracle. But it seems a lot
like something I read about Jesus recently.
In Luke 4 Christ was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum,
and a demon-possessed man began to shout. Jesus rebuked the demon and commanded
it to leave the man.
"Be quiet!" Jesus said
sternly. "Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down before
them all and came out without injuring him (Luke 4:35, NIV).
The demon had to come out—Jesus had commanded it. But a
demon is a tormentor, and it tried to inflict as much damage as it could as it
made its exit. It threw the man down, no doubt hoping to cause injury. A
dislocated shoulder, a concussion, a broken wrist—any of these would have been
a diabolic bonus as it was forced to vacate. But Luke calmly reports that it “came
out without injuring him.”
Once again, I can’t prove that the Savior lowered him to the ground and protected him from injury. But it’s certainly the kind of
thing Jesus does.
We won’t know, this side of glory, all the times Christ
protected, shielded, defended, or safeguarded us when we would otherwise have
been badly hurt or worse. But I bet there are a lot of them.
