September is a month of Miracles. I say that as several miraculous events have happened in September! Duke beat Clemson in football. That had to be an example of divine intervention. Sharon and I married 30 years ago on 9/25/93, a miracle succeeded by a series of miracles. On a serious note, another big one happened this year: Tamela Smith received a kidney after ten years on the transplant list! Praise God!!! 

God is still working; God is still working out the evil of this world for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. We often do not see His work because we do not expect it or look for it. The world has told us that the miraculous is mundane, and the credit for the work of God often goes to doctors, armies, and governments. 

When we look at the book of Nehemiah, we see that God works out His plan for rebuilding the wall and, more importantly, rebuilding the people of Judah through Nehemiah's hard work. God prepared Nehemiah by placing Him in the court of the Persian King, giving Him insight, management skills, and the position to successfully ask the King for permission to rebuild the wall and receive the funding to do so. God sends Nehemiah to Jerusalem to begin the work and allows Him to overcome the obstacles and problems that arise. God safeguards the work, even as others plot to destroy the progress and kill the people and Nehemiah. Through it all, Nehemiah continues to pray to God for what is needed and to give credit when help arrives.

Similarly, God sent the doctors and nurses from the transplant team to school to learn and develop medical skills. He gave them mentors so they could practice and hone those skills to help Tamela. He took the tragic loss of life of one dying person and used it to provide organs for Tamela and likely others to restore life and health to the sick and dying. God takes the evil and death of this world and uses it for good. 

We could ask why one had to die for others to live. We could ask why God allowed that person to die. We could ask why God did not heal this person instead of those who received their organs. The truth is that we don't know. We do know that God is at work, deserves the credit, and uses people to accomplish the impossible to accomplish miraculous things.

We know that through Jesus Christ's death, God restored us to eternal life. Romans 5:17 tells us: "For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ."

So rejoice with our sister, Tamela, who had received a great blessing, pray for the family of the person who donated organs, give thanks for the medical team who practice the gift of healing, and give praise to the one who works out all the circumstances of life for good.

This month, expect miracles and be on the lookout for the ways God is doing incredible things, many of them hidden among the ordinary acts of life. God is at work!

Peace,

Burt