The Case for Slow Miracles

My heart goes out to Megan and Joel. My husband and I were married nearly 10 years before our first son came along. Whether God blesses through adoption or a nearly impossible pregnancy, God blesses none the less.
Our oldest son is now 6. Yet even now those years of infertility that are behind us continues to effect my understanding of God’s character. We continue to face different struggles which result in the same cries: “Why?”"How long?” “Should I quit waiting for you to bless?” “Will you at least take the desire away so this isn’t so painful?”
God is faithful. I know that more today because I saw His faithfulness before we had our son. For us, the way He drew us closer to Him and shaped us to be more like Him during those long, hard, painful years continue to be a source of strength for us today.
We will pray God’s faithfulness will echo through Megan and Joel’s lives as they wait.

Yes, I love this. Many time our prayer requests look like a “No.” until we are able to look back, over many years, and see what God had been weaving together all along. That’s one of the reasons I love to journal. When you go back (re-read) and see the process unfolding it gives you a real understanding of what God was doing. Sometimes we don’t even realize that a prayer/miracle has been accomplished until we stop and look at what we were asking for a few years back! God is faithful!

I prayed last night just before going to bed (no, that’s not the miracle; well, maybe, yeah, but…) that our son would contact his mother in the next 24 hours, it being the twilight of Mother’s Day. Less than two minutes later, my wife said, “I got an email from Daniel (our adopted son, by the way). He says he’ll call me tomorrow.”

In this instance, the answer to prayer seems instant but, in reality, God, who never fails to work in our lives, had been working in our son’s heart through setbacks, adversity, and tons of parental prayers.

I’m grateful that the Lord chose my son’s email to encourage my own heart. Because of its dullness, I need such “miraculous” interventions. Not always. Just sometimes. Like last night.

I have to hold on to the hope that God is working a slow miracle.

I’ve been following your blog for a while now, and while your words often stir me, these particular ones really ministered to me. I work to fight human trafficking, mostly for orphans in war zones. This means I spend a lot of time in dark places like Darfur, Southern Sudan, Congo and other sharp corners of our world. A person doesn’t live in that kind of darkness without a lot of it rubbing off on you. And, at times, rather than crying out to God I fall into taking matters into my own hands.
Never a pretty sight. God, have mercy on me.
I wrote a lot about this incredible journey God allows me to stumble along on in my book, Passport through Darkness, but now i am having to face my own limitations on an even deeper level.
The agony of wanting a miracle for these precious children as bombs are dropped all around them and slave raiders come after them daily, just begs for a miracle.
At times, I admit that I’d rather hide in a bottle than hang onto a prayer.
Then, God shows me a bit of His agony in it all–and the steadfast way that He perseveres in His relentless pursuit of the redemption of the world, and the miracle of Hope breaks through once again.
i greatly needed your reminder today that this battle is not mine, but His in which He allows me to taste.
love, your sister along the journey, Kimberly L. Smith

Love this post. Please tell your daughter that she is so very right. She is a childless mother and God will send her His perfect child. We were married 11 years before God grew our family through adoption. I was a childless mother too, but oh when my eyes first met our Peyton’s, I knew…God had handed us a precious miracle years in the making!

It took my wife and I 18 months of paperwork and waiting until we finally brought our sons home from Ethiopia last September. My wife and I can definitely relate to your daughter and son-in-law as they wait for their miracle. Their day will come…their miracle will appear.

it’s hard to wait on God’s timing when we have so many plans of our own. part of me wonders if the wait is more about us than it is about Him. through every obstacle God is shaping our hearts, building our compassion, getting us ready to “see” through” new eyes. though the process is rarely easy, i find strength in knowing that He’s never left me, even when i was in the middle of the darkest valley. sometimes He shows up in a word of encouragement. sometimes in a song. sometimes in a prayer. but He always shows up. and it’s just that exact bit of strength i need to keep putting one foot in front of the other. i’m amazed at God. i’m amazed at how He works. i’m amazed that even in the middle of a chaotic world, He still finds time for just one.

i know without a doubt that God has His eye on megan and joel. i know He hasn’t forgotten them. i believe nothing happens by coincidence. that moments are not created by chance. through a series of unusual events, God placed on my heart the desire to post a certain blog yesterday. i wasn’t ready to do it. i didn’t know where it would lead. i wanted to wait until later. but i obeyed. because i know when He asks like that, He has something to say and someone who needs to hear it.

http://www.thegiftofmondays.com/2011/05/adopted-babys-talk-with-god.html

though miracles are never in our timing, your post reminds me that they are still miracles nonetheless!!!

Thank you for posting this one. I am encourage by the story while waiting for the answer from God for us in this situation. I always believe in miracles that God can do and of course He is able only the question is: “Are we patient enough to wait on God to reveal his glory?”

We are still waiting for God and always think that God is working – either slowly or fast – but HE IS STILL WORKING!

Be blessed!

Thanks for this reminder that I so much need today. However, I have a reminder regarding your daughter and her husband’s adoption process.
I had a young Dr. staying in our home for about 6 weeks as he prepared for foreign missionary service, as my husband a surgeon with missionary surgery experience, was taking him to work with him every day and mentoring him. His young wife, a nurse during the week, would come up and join us on the weekends. She was also going through fertility treatments as they wanted to have a baby before they left for a foreign country. They were finally told that there was no hope of every conceiving! They adopted a beautiful baby boy and left for the mission field. After arriving at their assigned post, and before the baby’s first birthday, she found out she was pregnant. She went on to have another child as well..
realizing, that God is in control, they knew that God wanted that first adopted child to be theirs and that would not have happened if He had answered the prayers for a child earlier.
He is at work even if we are impatient. He can be trusted!
I have prayed for your other grandaughter who is having health issues. How is she?
God bless you!
Faythe

I’ve seen magnificent, “slow” miracles. See attached.

We were spared by the HUGE outbreak tornadoes here in Alabama. However 3 years ago we were directly hit by one. Part of our house was wiped out. Others were destroyed. Like I told our church, “It is a miracle no one was killed in that storm. However, even if our house would have been completely destroyed. Even if a dozen people would have died. Even if we were still without a home… God is STILL a good God.” That’s a hard idea to process, but I believe that’s where faith comes into play. We also can witness miracles within those hard times. We’re seeing it now in those areas that were destroyed by the recent tornadoes and storms. In some of these places, our churches are being put on ‘standby’ because people are helping in such large numbers. People’s needs are being met. People are hurting and are being consoled the best way that can considering the circumstances. God is being seen. Some may say it’s a miracle.

This reminds me of a book that I read by Bill Hybles call Just Walk Across the Room. He talks about the process of evangelism and how people are moving along a time line until they reach the point of accepting Jesus. It could be a slow process on the time line or a quick one or it could be that you are the person that brings them to believing or someone else. The point is it is not about us, but about what God does and we are just instruments for the Lord. I think that the same can be said for miracles. We tend to get caught up in the issue of waiting to see something that happens dramatically. Often times , we are waiting to see what we want too rather than what God may want for us. It is like the old Garth Brooks song Unanswered Prayers.

I believe in miracles, quick and slow, as I’ve seen them happen in my life time and time again. In 1998, my daughter was very ill with a “mysterious” illness. After searching for 9 months for an answer to the illness overtaking her, we found our answer. By this time, our daughter was unable to walk, and it was uncertain if she would live anymore years here on earth. The next several years were spent in full time care of my daughter, and God was present in miracles, of different magnitudes. Some, to the outsider, may have seemed “not really miraculous”. But to our family, who had prayed and witnessed the prayers of literally hundreds of people across our country, God’s workings were never small. Answers and progress for our daughter’s recovery often came slowly, but they came. Our daughter was told she would never walk again, she is now a runner! God had many lessons for us to learn. Now we have the privilege of sharing them in the form of a 30 day devotional, being published through the West Bow division of Thomas Nelson! Marianne Takacs

 ”Usually, He works over a long period of time. This doesn’t make it any less miraculous, but it is certainly less dramatic.” I really liked this line. Sometimes Christians get caught up in the dramatic. We thrive on big events, huge responses to those in need, a thriving youth group that seems to sprout up over night, etc. While these things are good in so many ways and God uses them all the time to change our lives and to spark a deeper love for Him, if we are only relying on the dramatic experiences then we are missing out on so much of the daily works of God. They may not seem as amazing with one glance, but just like the acorn to the oak tree, there is a miracle that has happened none-the-lessUsually, He works over a long period of time. This doesn’t make it any less miraculous, but it is certainly less dramatic.” I really liked this line. Sometimes Christians get caught up in the dramatic. We thrive on big events, huge responses to those in need, a thriving youth group that seems to sprout up over night, etc. While these things are good in so many ways and God uses them all the time to change our lives and to spark a deeper love for Him, if we are only relying on the dramatic experiences then we are missing out on so much of the daily works of God. They may not seem as amazing with one glance, but just like the acorn to the oak tree, there is a miracle that has happened none-the-less

One of the people on my daily prayer list is my son.  As a child he committed his life to Jesus – loved Him passionately & even prevailed on the Pastor to baptize him (before he was 10 years old) because he felt so strongly about it.  Then life happened.  His father & I divorced when he was 13 years old – at this critical time of his life, his rock & ‘ground’ Oma passed away and his life fell apart.  His Dad was not walking a Christian life & I was basing my walk & behavior on fear & so he also, lost his way.  Throughout his turbulent defiant teen years I prayed & kept him before the Father.  Nothing.  More time passed – he was rejected by a girlfriend he thought would become his wife and ‘ran’  overseas for 4 1/2 years.  I continued to plead for him before the Father and last year he moved back home.  God had been hearing me, in that he came back safe & sound, a FAR more mature man than when he left , albeit with a still somewhat jaded attitude.  But God is faithful to His Word - He’s promised never to let us out of His Hand & I can see that occuring in my son’s life.  God has never let him go & continues to this day, in spite of the skid marks, to gently steer my boy back.  The challenge for me is to NEVER GIVE UP.  It is my personal  on-going lesson in faith.