Do you need a miracle?
This weekend I remember my first miracle.
Many years ago I was flying in a small plane with my friend Doug who was the pilot. It was after midnight and it had just rained. We were attempting to land in the city of Worthington. The airport was covered with a thick blanket of fog. No one was at this small airport to give us direction.
We lowered our plane into the fog to circle and look for the airport. We did this three times and found nothing. It was like flying into a solid white wall. When there is no visual reference you can get vertigo in a matter of a few minutes. One can be flying sideways or upside down and not even realize it.
Doug was worried. He apologized for taking off in the first place. We should not have been flying in such weather. I felt calm and told Doug that God had a plan for our lives and we would live to effect the lives of others in a positive way.
A fourth time we descended into the fog to look. We were so low we buzzed a house. I could see the outline of the shingles. Then we crossed the runway. I thought, "We are actually going to make it!" Doug banked the plane to the left. Once we completed the turn we would be lined up to land.
In the turn we were again flying into the fog. We looked for the lights of the runway. I looked over at Doug. He had blacked out. I starred at the controls. I had no idea how to land this thing.
I don't remember the impact. My next memory was waking up still in my seat. However my seat had moved. It was now where the right wing used to be. The door to the plane was open in front of me. I sat right behind it with my feet sticking straight out underneath it and into a fleshly planted corn field. I was fine.
Both wings and the engine were gone. Doug's seat too had separated from the floor and he was laying sideways on the cockpit floor. He was in shock. He knew his name, mine, and nothing else.
We spent the night in the hospital and left in the morning. Just before leaving my friend, Karen called. She and her husband, Loren were driving while we were flying. She had been asleep and woke up having dreamt that Doug and I were unable to find the airport in heavy fog and land. They stopped the car and prayed for us.
Do you need a miracle? You can have one. You can have more than one. I have witnessed many in my life. Do you know someone who does? You can manifest a miracle for others just as Loren and Karen did. Miracles do happen.
Do you need a miracle?
Before I recount my (long) story, allow me first to say two things:
God saves.
God is very much alive and well.
My story is also about people getting saved, but more on a spiritual level than a physical one.
Many, many years I joined a small group from my church where we spent a few days in Mexico on a missions orientation trip. This trip was to expose us to the missionary life and to help us understand whether we felt “led” to do something like this (it’s not for most people, including me). Anyway… the second or third night we were there one of the Mexican pastors running the missionary center invited a group of us to go with him to a nearby park and evangelize. (BTW - this Mexican pastor was a no-nonsense truth-teller who feared nothing or no one; IOW, my kind of guy.). I’m not exactly sure why I decided to go, but I think it was mostly to provide a level of protection to some of the younger 20-something girls that were tagging along.
Once we got to the large park the pastor told us to split off into groups of twos and threes and to let God lead us to whatever we were supposed to do or wherever we were to supposed to go. I joined up with this guy and his girlfriend and within a few minutes they almost got arrested by a young undercover Mexican cop working the park who thought they were selling drugs. After a quick talk with the cop (who spoke perfect English) to explain what we were doing, he let my friends go and thanked us for being there. After about fifteen minutes of wandering around, though, and getting a bit bored because nothing was “happening,” the three of us headed back to the park’s center to see what else we could do, as we were thinking that tonight was nothing but a big fat failure. Boy oh boy - were we wrong about that!
As we got nearer to the Park Center we could hear one of the girls who had come with us playing the guitar. Sitting near her on another bench was the Mexican pastor who was fervently preaching the gospel to a light-skinned, small-framed, emaciated Mexican man in his early twenties who was bawling his eyes out. Since they were speaking Spanish we couldn’t understand a word they were saying but we all knew the guy was being saved by Christ. The pastor then told the young man a few more things and the guy got up and left, still crying but happy. After he was gone we asked the Pastor what had happened and he said the following:
“Cristiano is gay and earlier today he had found out that he has AIDS and his boyfriend told him to leave the house and to never come back. Cristiano said he was on his way to kill himself when he heard the guitar playing from the park and decided to listen to some music one last time before committing suicide. I could see he was very troubled so I knew I had to talk to him. And now he’s saved. I told him to go to this Christian house in town who took care of people like him.”
The three of us sat in stunned silence after hearing that story. There wasn’t a whole lot to say except to praise God.
As I said earlier - God saves. And He’s still alive and well. Don’t ever doubt or forget that to be The Truth, and that there is absolutely nothing that can defeat the honesty or simplicity of that message.