The Miracle that Wasn't

Maybe it was the mother and father cradling the lifeless baby in their arms, hot tears streaming, as the words of the doctor echoed in their hearts "I'm sorry, there was nothing more we could do".
But why, they wondered. We prayed. We believed.  We had faith! Why?

Or maybe it was that night when the phone ringing clattered the silence of sleep, and cold dread filled the heart of the one who answered as the voice on the other end, said "I'm so sorry...", the news crippling the heart with pain and sorrow in a moment.

Or maybe it was a cold sterile examining room where the doctor's diagnosis with the "c" word filled the room with deafening heartache, and the words, "I'm sorry..." don't feel very sorry at all.

Or maybe it was the day the door slammed shut, and the one you loved left you for the arms of someone else, with your dreams and hopes for a perfect life dying a horrible death with the slamming of that door.

Or maybe it was the dream job you had that got eliminated in the company's restructuring... or maybe it was the home you loved and had precious memories in, that burned to the ground in a terrible moment of destruction.... or maybe it is the job that you feel stuck in, with no hope of change... or a child who has caused untold heartache and sorrow in the hearts of the parents...

or maybes.... this list could go on and on... this cold aching list of moments in life that will never be forgotten, burned deep into the memory of hearts that were forever changed by the moment of the 'miracle that wasn't'.

You may wonder where this post could be going, 

but I hope you'll continue reading, 

because I have a deep message of hope to share.

You see, the Lord began dealing with my heart a couple of months ago, and it happened in a simple enough fashion... I began reading in the book of Genesis towards the end of December, and as I've slowly read each story heralded there, each story seemed to have me asking the question "why"?

Why did Leah have to endure such heartache, through no fault of her own, given to a man whose heart was with her sister, and the heartache that came because of her father's choice to deceive Jacob in the marriage.  Why?



Hagar, faithful to her mistress Sarah, found only heartache and sorrow after being given as a concubine to Abraham, and upon bearing him a son, was despised by the women she had served faithfully for years, through no fault of her own.  Why?

And then all of my "why" questions led me back to Eve, the mother of us all.  Why did she make the choice she did?  Couldn't the Lord have stepped in and helped her to see the trick of the enemy?  Why did He not?

As I pondered these deep questions, the answer to "why" became quite clear.

The Lord could have stepped in time and time again to answer the cries of those who called out.  He could have performed miracle after miracle, but He didn't.

He chose not to.  

Why? Because His plan extended much farther than just that moment in time.  His plan would take years to come about, but events had to fall into place, because of HIS PLAN.

I think this may be one of the hardest posts I've ever written.  It is because with our human frailty, it is hard to understand this:

 Pain and suffering come to us for a good purpose, and not bad.  

In that dark moment of pain, heartache and loss,
we cannot even begin to comprehend
how God could take our horrible situation,
and turn it into something greater.  

But this is the simple answer that God wants me to know.. 

and He wants you to know it too.

When we pray for that miracle, and God is silent, it hurts.  Really hurts.

If your prayers feel like they are hitting the roof, and that God seems uncaring, and unwilling to intervene in your situation... let me reassure you... He is not.  He may just have a PLAN that you can't see or understand right now.  And it may be, that miracle you are crying out for... may be one that will never be.



Despair may seem like your closest companion, the silence and the darkness may seem to be a deafening witness to the hopelessness of your situation.

But hold on, dear friend.  May I offer you great hope?

It is in these dark hours of despair, that the presence of the Lord comes to us, enveloping us in His embrace, and there is a painful bittersweet joy in these times, like no other.  The joy of His presence cannot be known like this except in these times of suffering.  It's true.

We pray for the anointing, for the presence of the Lord, for peace, for joy, for happiness, for hope, for faith... for all these things.  And we want these things in the only way our human hearts know - without any negatives, without any sorrow attached to it.

But my friend, it is not to be so.

Take any bible story that is familiar to you.  We see the victory, the glory, the joy in the end, but did you read the story from beginning to end?  Did you see that the beginning of every.single.story contains the bittersweet companions of both joy and sorrow?

Think of Daniel and the lion's den. We love to hear how the Lord saved him from the mouth of the lions.  But remember what happened before the miracle? I'm sure Daniel felt sure he would die that night as he was thrown into the den with the lions.  Surely God should have answered Daniel's prayers and saved him from that imminent fate!  Why did He not? Because... He had a greater purpose in mind. A far greater miracle took place with Daniel being saved from the lions, than if God had simply averted the whole situation and stopped it from happening.

Do you see the pattern here?  Please, stop a moment, and think of any glorious bible story you know of, while thinking of the great and miraculous, do you remember the haunting, horrible, terrible moments of pain beforehand... before there were the miracles that weren't, but because God had a greater plan, a greater miracle takes place later, and never on our time schedule!

I am writing this simply because it is what the Lord has been speaking to my heart as I've read through the book of Genesis this past couple of months.  And I can attest, that in my life too,  there have been times when I prayed for the Lord to intervene, and He hasn't.  In some circumstances, He still hasn't.  I'm still praying.  I don't understand or claim to know His plan.

But this one thing I know... just because God says no, or your "answer" doesn't come when you think it should, this doesn't mean He doesn't care.  It could just be the "miracle that wasn't", because He has a far greater one in store for you.  My simple human eyes can't see it or comprehend it, but His do.  His eyes are eternal.  He sees the end from the beginning at once, and His scope of time knows no limitations, while mine does.  And too, our earthly body may never see the miracle He has planned.

Leah, in the midst of her heartache, may never have known that through her son Judah would come the lineage of Christ.  She lived a life of heartache and sorrow, and perhaps in her earthly body, she never got to see just what the Lord had planned through her heartache and sorrow.

I've really said nothing new, or that you probably haven't heard before.  But maybe you just needed to hear it again.  I know I did.  I don't know what the Lord has planned for my life ~ I can't see it spread out before me as He does.  But one thing I do know... is that HE KNOWS.  And if there is a 'miracle that wasn't' in my life, I'm confident that His plan is the best for me.  And I content myself in that.

I have the whole of the Bible before me to say "I told you so", and I look forward, past today, to the place that the Lord has for me, for you, for all of us.  And I will praise Him now for the Miracle that Will Be.... whatever it is.

Praise for the Lord will fill my heart and soul because of WHO He is, and because I know He has our best interests in mind, and that contents me.

Is there a situation in your life that you have prayed and prayed for, only to come up empty, sorrowful, and without any hope?  I encourage you today to place that need in the "Miracle that Wasn't" box, and instead begin to look to the Lord with hope that whatever the "Miracle that Will Be" is, that you will be content, and will praise Him.  It is the answer to my question of "why" that is found answered all throughout scripture.  And if it worked in times past for the saints of old, it will work for you and me too.

And even as it seems Leah never found the happiness she deserved, when Judah came along, she made a decision to praise, and THAT child was the lineage through which Jesus came.  You see, when she stopped trying to get what she thought she deserved, and began to praise... THAT is when her answer came, the answer she had been seeking.  And that is the secret to all of this seeking and searching.

Some things we may never, ever understand in our humanity. But when we praise HIM in spite of it, that is when the answer will come.  The Word is true.  The answer is in our attitude and our praise. The Miracle that Will Be comes when we praise, and let Him work as He will.

It's a hard lesson to learn, yes it is.  But I've tried it, and I've found it to be true.  When your heartache is filling a deep fathom of hurt and darkness, try to do what Leah did, and see if your well will not spill over with the blessing of the Lord, in places where you least expect it, it will come.

Because He is the God that has chosen pain and suffering as the avenue to bless us with, and when we understand that, there will come a joy, peace, and contentment to your heart such as you have never known before.

Praise Him now, for the Miracle that Wasn't, and for the Miracle that Will Be!