Miracles
I asked Author Ian Cron at the recent LUMINOUS12 Conference: “Why don’t people believe in healing miracles anymore? Although followers were drawn to Jesus’ teaching and preaching, it was the healing miracles that drew incredible crowds. In Mark 2:3-5 the crowd was so large that the house was full of people and a paralytic man had to be lowered through the roof to be healed by Jesus.”
I’ve heard that people began to question miracles during the intellectual debates of the Enlightenment when everything had to be proven with rational scientific facts, or that people began doubting miracles when the television preachers of the 1980’s staged fictitious physical healings in order to gain sympathetic donors desperately trying to buy a miracle.
For all the debate, I believe that miracles do occur in the physical, emotional, and spiritual realms because I have been the personal recipient of more than one “healing”. In May 2007, I was sitting at my computer at work when I heard a “snap” and the vision in my right eye became blurry with pain. A quick exam verified no detached retina, but my vision didn’t improve. Over the next year, I had 6 ophthalmologists’ exams, 6 neuro-ophthalmologists’ exams and one brain MRI to rule out a brain tumor. There was no medical reason for my blurry vision; all I knew was that I couldn’t see clearly and had constant pain. In 2008, I joined my church, which has a healing prayer ministry and I asked them to pray for my eye to be healed. I had doctors’ visits every six months with no change in my vision. Occasionally my friends would ask me how I was feeling and remind me that they were still praying for me. After so much time, it seemed like a hopeless cause; I had stopped praying for a cure and moved on to praying for other things.
In July 2011, I awoke one morning and my right eye began to water. I could feel my eye muscles straining and the spots started to clear in my vision. Over the next month, the blurry vision in my right eye slowly began to resolve. By September I had no pain and my vision was clear! All I needed was reading glasses for perfect vision again!
I don’t have a medical explanation why I had blurry vision and pain for 4 years and then one day it cleared. I also admit that I had stopped praying for healing, but my friends had continued to pray. Is it a miracle? Is there any other explanation?
Ian Cron’s response to my original question: “Maybe the word “miracle” is the problem. Too many times it’s been used falsely and people don’t want to be duped again. Maybe we should call them “unreasonable events” because they can’t be explained by rationale thought. But they definitely occur.”
Do you believe in miracles? Jesus asked the question of the invalid at the Bethesda pool, “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:2-6)
My answer to both questions: “Yes, Sir, I do.”
Blessings, my friend,
Agatha