What is a miracle

The first definition of miracle on Dictionary.com is "an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause." I don't really like this definition, and this post will explain why.

First of all, what does it mean for something to be caused by a supernatural cause? It would be something that does not obey the laws of the universe, correct? But the universe, and its laws were created by God. And why would God ever have need to break his own laws? God certainly influences things in the universe, and performs miracles on scales from affecting the entire universe to a single individual. But I have no reason to believe that he does so outside of the laws of the universe that he established at his creation. As an Example look at Moses parting the Red Sea. It is entirely conceivable that some natural phenomenon caused the water to stop flowing at some point, and then start again. But why should that preclude the involvement of God. It would be a remarkable coincidence for the phenomenon to occur at precisely the right time for the Israelites to cross on dry land. If it is the case, as I speculate that it is, that God performed the miracle by utilizing natural forces, then Moses' miracle was the result of a natural cause, but it was also a miracle of God.

Now let me talk about my own life. There have been a vast many occurances in my life that are entirerly explainable by human and/or natural forces, which nonetheless I would consider miracles. Often they take the form of something like me, or someone else, being in the right place at the right time, or someone saying something I really needed to hear, or a pathway opening to me that had previously been shut. I believe that these sorts of things happen to everyone. Some may say that they are just coincidences or random occurances. But the frequency with which they have occured in my life is too statistically significant to reasonably accept that as an explanation. I see the work of God in my life, and the lives of others, even when they do not see it. That is what I call a miracle.

You can do incredible things with science and technology. Today's technology would look like magic to the ancients. And our current understanding of the laws of the universe is limited at best. Just look at quantum mechanics. We can make remarkable predictions in that realm, but we have only half-baked philosophical musings about what is really going on. There are many things in this world that cannot be explained by the science we currently have, but they are not considered miracles by most, because eventually when our knowledge progresses we can explain them as natural phenomina. And there is nothing wrong with that. But just because something is natural doesn't mean it doesn't come from God.

One of God's greatest miracles is the miracle of creation. It is a miracle that we can see just by looking around us, and on deeper study the miracle only becomes more profound. If the physical constants that show up in our laws of physics differed by even a small amount, the universe would be the way it is, there might have been no stars, no matter, and certaiinly no life as we know it. And there is a beuaty and symmetry in the way the world works, down from the most complex organisms on Earth (i.e. humans) to the most basic laws of physics.

In order to miss the works of God in the Universe you must actively be trying not to see them.