Wednesday after Epiphany
It is amazing how blest we are and yet how often we fail to recognize it. Driving to work on one of these icy days, my car slid a whole lane on the highway. My reaction, after I got beyond the fear, was that I was lucky that no one was in that lane. Recently, my brother was driving in a snow storm and had to swerve to miss a carpet and carpet tacks lying across the lane in which he was driving. After safely getting past this carpet, he decided to stop and pull the hazard to the side of the road so that no one else might be put in danger. While moving the last piece of debris, which was heavier than he expected, a car came flying down the road towards him. In nearly, white conditions he just barely got off the road. After he got past the fear, he realized that he had been protected by something beyond natural. My brother believed an angel saved him and that it was a miracle.
Why does it sometimes take a near death experience to help us see God’s work? In the gospel, Jesus had just fed the five thousand, yet the disciples did not recognize Jesus’ miracle because of their hardness of heart. It is when the disciples were out on their boat, and the storm terrified them, that they became open to God’s working in the world. Jesus got into their boat and suddenly all was calm. The disciples are amazed and begin to recognize Jesus as one with authority.
The storms in our own lives often leave us afraid, sometimes to the point that we are paralyzed by our fear. Because of the fear, we may go out onto our boats without the Lord. Perhaps, this is because we could not recognize the Lord in that situation, or perhaps we did not trust the Lord’s authority at that moment.
"Loving and merciful God, strengthen us this and everyday so that we might recognize the ways You have things under Your control. Give us hearts that trust, so that with our mind’s eye we are able to know that You are working all around us, often in miraculous ways. Amen!"
- Michael Montgomery