Psalm 119:27

"Help me understand the meaning of your commandments, and I will meditate on you wonderful miracles."

Albert Einstein said, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." Do a miracle meditation experiment. Read through the Gospels and stop at every miracle along the way, letting that life-changing power of God seep into my own life. It seems you cannot turn a page of the Gospel story without running across Jesus doing something totally unexpected and miraculous, but I know the story so well that I often skip right through stuff without acknowledging how truly amazing these stories are. I've lost the shock factor. As we look at the miracles of Christ, let's consider what he did, why he did it, who was involved, and how that changed their lives.

For instance, I love the story of the roof crashers in Luke 5. These guys lugged a paralyzed man through the village to get him to Jesus; those are some committed guys. Once they arrived at the house, the realized they couldn't get in, so they dragged the guy onto the roof, dug through the roof, and lowered him in front of Jesus. Where was the owner of the house and what was he thinking? What were those four men thinking? How was that guy on the mat feeling as he sat at with everyone staring at him laying at Jesus feet with shingles falling on his head? Then, Jesus does the truly miraculous-- he forgives the man of his sins. And why did he do that? Because he saw the faith of the friends who brought him (Luke 5:20). That will change your world. The Pharisees shouted blasphemy, so Jesus just told the guy to get up and walk. So the guy picked up his mat, praised God, and walked home. Verse 25 says that the people who witnessed it were "gripped with great wonder" and they repeated, "We have seen amazing things today."

Stop and meditate on that for a bit. How were the lives of the four men changed knowing it was their faith that healed their friend? How was the life of the paralyzed man changed? What did he do with that mat? Did he go home and immediately burn it to leave behind his past? Did he hold onto it fearing the paralysis might return? Did he hang it on the wall as a memorial of his encounter with God's life-changing power? What about the people who witnessed these "amazing things?" Did that memory remain with them throughout their lives and how did it change them?

To bring it home, what miracles has God done in our lives that we have totally missed? Let's meditate on his miracles today.