Miracles and stories where persistence pays off – that thing we longed for and prayed for is, against all odds, granted – can sometimes be hard to hard to hear when you are still waiting for your miracle.

While we marvel at God’s power to do the impossible and the grace that flows from Him in the miraculous, and we do gain strength and encouragement from that, what looks like the randomness of it to us still hurts.

But if we are willing to open up our minds and our hearts to a wider definition of the miraculous, we will see that God is in fact working miracles in us.  God’s intervention may not be in the way we expected, but it is still a miracle.

To experience God’s grace and nearness, even in places of pain.  To trust Him even in the midst of suffering and waiting, and to have our faith deepen in times of darkness.  Perhaps that is our miracle.

It’s the miracle of “even if” faith.

In the third chapter of Daniel, when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow down and worship King Nebuchadnezzar and are facing the fire of a blazing furnace, they tell the King, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

They are telling the King they know their God – our God – can save them from the fire, but EVEN IF he doesn’t, they will still choose to worship Him.

In her book, “Learning to Walk in the Dark”, Barbara Brown Taylor wrote, “There is a light that shines in the darkness, but it is only visible there.”  Our experiences in the darkness can be the very place where God works the miraculous.  It is where we our persistence does in fact pay off – with a deeper faith that says even if God does not work the miracle I am asking for, God is with me and His grace is enough.

Lord Jesus, those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.  (Psalm 9:10) Thank you for the gift of your presence and the sufficiency of your grace.  Amen.