Wonderlost.

Ever start driving and get lost in your thoughts only to look around and wonder, “Wait, how did I get here?” Or drive your route to work when you meant to go to the grocery store? Teaching my boys to drive reminded me that I’m riding a four-thousand-pound tank at speeds faster than any animal can run. A car can do a lot of damage in the blink of an eye. Without the reminder of the power under our responsibility, we can become accustomed to driving, and the action becomes so routine that we move on autopilot.

Our ancestors were instructed to remember God’s miracles, to write them on the doorposts so that they stay in the forefront of our minds. The idea was to keep the awe and wonder of God fresh in their children’s minds, but over time familiarity can diminish our view. Our spiritual lives become routine. God’s miracles become conventional stories. Many think miracles were things of the past that no longer happen today, but Hebrews 13:8 states, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever.”

Is our familiarity with religion diminishing our view of God? Do miracles happen today? Or are we zoning out, doing our life routine, and overlooking them?

Billy Graham, in his book Angels, recounts the story of Scottish missionary John G. Paton and his wife, who moved to the Island of New Hebrides in the South Pacific to help tribes of cannibals come to know Christ. One night they came under attack. The hostile natives threatened to burn their missionary headquarters and kill them. Survival looked grim. Paton and his wife prayed, and when dawn broke, the natives had left.  

Almost a year later, the leader of that cannibal tribe came to know Jesus as Savior. The tribal leader went to visit Paton, and the missionary remembered the night of the attack. He asked the leader why the tribe had fled. The leader said they were too fearful to fight because of the men in shiny garments holding swords. The only explanation Paton had for the miracle of his survival was that God had sent an army of angels to protect them.

Another modern-day miracle took place during WWI. The British troops were trying to stop the German army from breaking through and taking Belgium. The British had exhausted their reserves and were dropping from fatigue. Defeat looked inevitable, and upon hearing the news, British folks crowded into churches to pray for God’s intervention.

While a British regiment retired through the Town of Mons, the Germans bombarded them with heavy artillery fire. Suddenly the firing stopped and the sky grew quiet. The British troops peeked out from their hastily formed barricade to find what was described as 4 or 5 wondrous beings in white robes. Soon after, the Germans retreated in haste.

A similar account happened again several years later in 1918 when the British were about to be surrounded in Bethune, France again by the Germans. The Americans were on their way to provide support, but they wouldn’t arrive in time. A day of prayer was called, and Captain Hayward recounts how the Germans started shooting at the ground of an open field instead of at them, and then they retreated. When the captain asked the remaining wounded German soldiers why the rest scattered, the injured men recounted a White Cavalry of men holding swords who slowly advanced like leading a parade despite their troops shooting at them.

These accounts sound similar the Biblical account in 2 Kings 6, when Elijah said, “Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then he prayed for God to open the eyes of his servant, and his servant saw the vast army of angels covering the hills.  

There are also Biblical accounts of enemy armies scattering for no good reason. Like when God told Gideon to blow trumpets and break pots and the Midianite army scattered (Judges 7:1-22). Also, when the lepers decided to go into the Aramean camp and found the army had left in a hurry, leaving food and supplies behind (2 Kings 7:3-9).

I don’t believe the similarities are coincidental.

Don’t lose your wonder and fear of the God who spoke the universe into being, who uses the earth as His footstool, and formed us out of clay. He hasn’t forgotten His children and His power has not diminished over time.

God is not the Great-I-Used-to-Be.

He’s the Great I Am!