I love the miraculous. I love to see people healed, restored, financially blessed and strengthened supernaturally, like when I read through the Bible and see the 10 plagues, the Red Sea part, the fire consume Elijah’s offering and the dead raised.
Each time I read where G-D shows Himself working outside of the natural, it is encouraging and increases my faith to believe that He not only performed miracles in the pages of the Holy Scriptures, but He still performs miracles in the pages being written of our lives today.
Yet for me, some of the most miraculous events take place not when G-D does something for one of the heroes of our faith in the pages of our sacred texts, but when G-D simply joins with one of the people we read about in the Bible for a time of fellowship; when the Creator spends personal time with His creation.
One of my favorite verses in the New Testament is found in John 6:3 (TLV): “Then Yeshua went up the mountainside and sat down there with His disciples.”
This verse takes place right in the middle of some of the most powerful miracles that Yeshua performed in His earthly ministry. Yet right in the middle of these miracles, we find Yeshua demonstrating something equally miraculous. The G-D of eternity takes time to sit down on a mountainside with His disciples. In the blur of the signs and wonders taking place, we can totally miss out on the significance of this moment in time when the Creator spends personal time with His Creation.
The very first time we see this kind of relational miracle is when G-D visits Adam and Eve in the Garden in Genesis 3:8-9: “And they heard the sound of Adonai Elohim going to and fro in the garden in the wind of the day. So the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Adonai Elohim in the midst of the Tree of the garden. Then Adonai Elohim called to the man and He said to him, ‘Where are you?'”
Another example is in John 21. After Yeshua’s resurrection and right after the disciples pulled in their nets with the miraculous catch of fish, Yeshua cooks breakfast for them. And one of the most significant examples of this type of relational miracle takes place in Genesis 18, when G-D stops by Abraham’s tent for dinner. Just imagine what an experience that would have been for Abraham.
These personal visits, the relational miracles that we find as we read through the Bible are some of the most awesome miracles recorded. Yet too often we pass over them as we read about the battle miracles like the walls of Jericho, or the provision miracles like the loaves and fishes, or the healing miracles like when the blind see.
But the truth is, the relational miracles may be the most significant because they demonstrate more than the might of G-D; they demonstrate the love of G-D.
So, as you read through the Bible, make notes of the many, many places where relational miracles take place. Then, remember that when G-D showed up to visit Abraham, Abraham didn’t see Him until he lifted up his eyes to see. It may be possible that through our lives, G-D visited with us personally, and we missed Him because we didn’t lift up our eyes and see. {eoa}
Eric Tokajer is author of With Me in Paradise, Transient Singularity, OY! How Did I Get Here?: Thirty-One Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Entering Ministry, #ManWisdom: With Eric Tokajer, Jesus Is to Christianity as Pasta Is to Italians and Galatians in Context.
