Recognizing The Miracle

"Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him...." Luke 24:31a

        Miracle...Just the word itself conjures up so many emotions - curiosity, anticipation, excitement, awe, even hope. In our heart of hearts we all long to experience the miraculous. We want to see God break through the ordinariness of our lives, swoop in and do something extraordinary and supernatural. We long for him to take special notice of us, of our circumstances, of our need - oh, our bottomless need, and display his intervening power and send his glory down. We want the "unnatural" laws of pain, hurt, loss, poverty, and  disease turned on their heads, just for once, just for us. We want to be "that one", "that person" who has the God-story to tell; the "against all odds" testimony, the story full of "coincidences" with too-amazing-to-believe details that everyone we tell it to knows...knows it was God orchestrating, God intervening, God acting, God performing what we all so desperately long for - a miracle.
        Miracle...that is what the religious elite demanded, what some shrugged away, what the desperate pleaded for, what the humble were surprised by, and what a few outsiders got to experience by the grace of God. All of these had the same need - whether they realized it or not. Only some of these recognized that the miracle was right there in the midst of them. Our human nature cries out for, even demands the spectacular; but what our souls really need is the quiet, already-there miracle, the God With Us miracle. Jesus was the miracle. Jesus is the miracle. He was in their midst: unassuming, humble, ordinary-yet extraordinary. He is in our midst-in the everyday ordinary, which, if we can see it, is the extraordinary.
        Miracle...He is here. He is The Miracle doing the miraculous. We are each, in fact, "that one" with the "against all odds" testimony. We each have our own unique God-story to tell because he has sent his glory down. We need him to open our eyes so we can see him; recognize him in the mundane, in the  grind, in the here-and-now moments where we so desperately want and need a miracle - The Miracle.