MIRACLES IN THE MIDST

The journey often gets overshadowed by the focus on the destination.  Focusing only on the destination we can miss many things that are in between the starting point and the ending point; things that we think are inconsequential to our getting to where we are meant to be.  For me the journey itself is equally important as the destination because I don’t want to miss the miracles that happen along the way.  Too much is missed in life because we are in a hurry to get to where we are going, or do what we have set out to do.  One too many times I have reached my goal, gotten to my destination, and then say to myself, “Is that all there is?”

I am finding that as I grow older and more seasoned in my faith, I look at life with a more eternally minded perception.  Perhaps this is because I can’t move as fast as I could when I was younger.  Or perhaps my soul keeps asking me, “why the rush; what’s the hurry; do I need this pressure?”

The officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and the Roman soldiers from the state were on a mission the night they went to arrest Jesus.  They had their orders.  The peace of that garden where Jesus was with his disciples was disrupted by men with lanterns, torches, and weapons.  The soldiers were after a supposed enemy of Rome; the chief priests were after a blasphemer. When they approached Jesus they did not find a man standing in terror; they found a man at peace and a man who offered no resistance.  His disciples were not so calm.  Peter brought forth a sword, raising the level of tension, and cut off the ear of a servant of Caiaphas’, adding blood, fright, and confusion to the scene.  Jesus moved, not to fight back in defense, not to run away from the situation, but to bend down and heal the man Peter had wounded.

The chief priests and soldiers were so focused on their mission that they missed this miracle, bound Jesus and took him away.  How could they miss what had just happened right in front of their own eyes?  I wonder if when they got off duty that night and returned to their homes, if they sat down and recalled what they had seen and experienced.  I wonder what they thought when they saw Jesus being nailed to a cross and crucified.  I wonder what they thought when he rose from the dead.

I am sure Malcus took time to consider the events of that night and the next few days.  He had been touched by this man; he had been healed by this man.  His relative also witnessed this event and found Peter in the courtyard.  Peter, in fear for his life denied even knowing Jesus to her face.  She obviously wasn’t after him to do him harm, or she would have alerted the guards.  She was there for another reason; possibly in quest of a Lord and Master other than the one she was now serving.  Peter missed the opportunity to tell her about such a man.

The rush to be going about our business and fear keep us from truly seeing what is to be found along our path as we journey through this life we have been given to live.  We miss miracles; we miss opportunities; we miss the life we are journeying through to reach something or to get some place. 

In the words of Simon and Garfunkle, “Slow down, you move too fast.”  In the words of our Creator, “Be still and know I am God.”