Christ would have been the kindly stranger and the help with the problem, and it would be His hands that would arrange for the hamper to be prepared to ease the way.
I was praying for a miracle the other day. It was a big one.
And as I was praying, I began to think that it is really quite a difficult thing to have faith and believe that a miracle will occur. In my mind, as I was thinking things through, I thought to myself, “Well, it would be so much easier to believe in miracles, if I was living two thousand years ago when Christ was alive.” I reasoned to myself, “Then, I would really be able to believe because God Himself would be standing before me.”
And that really stopped me in my tracks. The other day, a loved one asked me how I felt that the I could see the Holy Spirit in my life. Now, I am no visionary or seer. And when I say that I can SEE the Holy Spirit, what I really mean is that I can feel – very strongly – the influence of the Holy Spirit in every single thing that I do.
How does the Holy Spirit look to me? Well, He is the kind word of a stranger on a terribly difficult day. He is the respite from the problem at hand when I think I simply cannot handle one more moment of pressure. And He is the hamper prepared by a stranger to help ease the way…
And as I reflected on the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life, I started to wonder about whether I really would have been able to recognise God walking in the body of Christ two thousand years ago. For He would not have looked very extraordinary either. He would have looked poor. He would have looked tired. And He would have looked powerless. And yet, He would have been the kindly stranger and the help with the problem, and it would be His hands that would arrange for the hamper to be prepared to ease the way.
And when I think about that, I can understand the frustration of my Beloved, who said, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the men of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be to this generation... The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” (Luke 11:29-32).
And as I reflect on that today, I stop right here in the middle of my prayer and I give thanks. For I have been given the gift of FAITH, and that means that God Himself is visible all around me – even in the mediocrity of life. And so, I will never have any reason to fear!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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