The Greater Miracle

"Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." - John 14:12

Spring in rural Iowa is something to see.

All winter long, fields have sat bare, with scraggly bits of cornstalk poking out through the snow.

And then slowly, spring comes. Tractors take to the fields, and in no time, seeds are planted deep under that beautiful black soil in neat rows.

Then we wait.

The waiting time isn't very glamorous. There isn't much that the farmer can do, really, to get those seeds to pop up and show their green little heads. They wait for the miracle that only sun and water and time can bring about.

In the book of John, Jesus says that Christians will do even greater things than all the miracles he performed.

Really, though?

I mean, turning water into wine isn't a routine activity for me. (Turning water into coffee? Yes.) I don't raise people from the dead. I don't think I've ever healed a leper.

And yet, Jesus says that I will do even more - I will do things that are even greater.

I recently heard a pastor on the radio (and I pray he forgives me for not catching his name!) who said,

"Giving hearing to the deaf is a miracle. Giving them the lifesaving news of the love of Christ so that they may hear is a bigger miracle."

I tend to look for the physical- the measurable, the tangible. I want to be part of the miracle that I can point to and say, "See! It was water! Now it's wine!"

But that's a lesser miracle in the face of the intangible salvation of a soul.

Just like in life, the greatest things aren't things at all.



It's not glamorous. It's not flashy or cool.

Our miracles are everyday ones.

Speaking truth, living in love, and planting the seeds.

And then it's about the waiting. About God working the rest of the miracle- doing what only God can do, to making those seeds grow.

It may not seem like a big deal, but it's the biggest miracle of all.