Recently, a friend of ours told us of a terrible auto accident her 17-year-old son (call him Mike) had late one night coming back from his shift at a local fast food place. His 14-year-old Pontiac was destroyed when he swerved to avoid hitting a deer and over-corrected. His car flipped end over end and came to a jarring stop against a tree. The air bags did not deploy, but Mike had his seatbelt on and sustained only relatively minor injuries.
The fact that Mike survived is truly amazing when viewing the wreckage. The car was totally crushed except for the driver’s compartment. The steering wheel was embedded in the driver’s seat, missing both of Mike’s legs. Mike had the presence of mind to take inventory of his injuries, then worked to free himself. He walked away with a few cuts and lots of bruises. A lucky guy?
Yeah, a lucky guy! Maybe, but I think that Mike would tell a slightly different story. It is a story of his faith, of his commitment, and his conviction that God has some special plans for him. His mother would tell the same story, a story of a young man who lives his life with an unpretentious but contagious faith that rubs off on his brothers and his wide circle of friends.
A lucky guy? Possibly. A miracle? Yes! If you believe that God is in charge, then his miracles happen every day. Sometimes in a hospital. Sometimes in the midst of a tornado. How about when your cancer goes into an unpredicted remission? Or, when you have a serious car accident and survive. We hear of miracles in the fog of war and maybe credit bravery. Everyday miracles. They may pass before us and we just accept them. Maybe we chalk them up as coincidences, or luck, or just a “mystery”. We may have a hard time understanding that God is in all we do, and his hand is there in the midst of those “coincidences”.
So, was Mike lucky? C.S.Lewis in his book Miracles makes the case that miracles are not “intrinsically improbable” and you only have to look at the physical evidence to convince us that a miracle has occurred. Physical evidence? Just that Mike walked away! The doubters would say, Mike was lucky. Believers would say that something very special occurred. Call it a miracle, call it the hand of God, but don’t call it luck!
For Mike it is simple and uncomplicated. He believes what he knows and knows what he believes. What he believes is that God is all around him and within him, and that God is Christ, Lord and Savior. God is in charge, and He loves us! Simple, uncomplicated.
For What It’s Worth.
-30-
