God and His Miracles Unveiled 

MAKING MUCH OF MIRACLES

Floating in a Miami pool one midwinter, Pastor Mark Batterson had what he calls an epiphany.  As he admired the shimmering sunlight on the water, “a question fired across my synapses: What’s really happening when what’s happening is happening?”  He was thinking about that sunlight, emanating from the star we know as the sun, which he later read is 93 million miles away, and 333,000 times the mass of Earth.  He also learned that sunlight travels incredibly fast – 186,282 miles per second – so the rays he saw shimmering on that Miami pool got there in only eight minutes and twenty seconds.  Miraculous! 

“Most of us take everyday miracles for granted.  This book is about taking them for gratitude.  Why is that so important?” he asks.  “Because whatever you don’t turn into praise turns into pride!  It doesn’t just rob God of the glory He deserves; it steals our joy.”  Mark points out that we praise God for anomalies and epiphanies, which is right, but tend to overlook and underappreciate everyday miracles.  “There is a fine line between the mundane and the miraculous.  If you see the miraculous as mundane, life becomes a bore.  If you learn to discern the miraculous in the mundane, welcome to wonderland,” he exclaims.     

GOD MOST HIGH (BIGGER THAN BIG)

Starting with the observations of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1592, and those of his protégé, Johannes Kepler, Mark goes on to emphasize the vastness of God’s creation, according to current data.  “Astronomers now estimate the existence of more than two trillion galaxies, only two of which are visible from the Northern Hemisphere – the Milky Way and Andromeda.  Each of those two trillion galaxies has an average of one hundred billion stars.

The very nature of our stunningly creative God is also a miracle, Mark believes.  “It’s not easy parsing God’s personality, but one undeniable dimension is playfulness.  This is the God who created us with the capacity to laugh,” Mark says. The fact that humans (and animals) have both the ability and desire to be playful is a miracle to be enjoyed regularly.  “Jesus pushed the playfulness envelope further than anyone.  He said that we can’t enter the kingdom of heaven unless we become like little children, and part of becoming like little children is recapturing what they are best at – playfulness.”  And just how do we do that in our serious world?  “Whether we’re playing with Legos, playing games, or playing music, God takes joy in our enjoyment.  It’s a reflection of His playful personality, which we greatly underestimate.  In the words of C.S. Lewis, ‘Joy is the serious business of Heaven.’”   

GOD MOST NIGH (CLOSER THAN CLOSE)

That God is not only marvelously creative and vast, but is much closer than we often think, especially when we’re hurting, is another aspect of His character, Mark says.  “A Harvard study conducted in 2020 found that 61 percent of young adults ages eighteen to twenty-five experience serious loneliness.”  He refers to surgeon

general Dr. Vivek Murthy, who says that loneliness also has serious implications on our health.  “As modeled by the Trinity, relationship is what we were created for.  From the get-go, God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.’  Without healthy relationships, there are serious side effects.  Even Jesus had his disciples!  Our love for Christ overcomes racial tension, political polarization, and a dozen other things that divide culture. While we must acknowledge mistakes made in the name of Christ, the church has done more collective good than any organization on earth, and there is no close second.  And there is no backup plan. The transformational power of community is one of God’s most life-giving miracles – don’t miss it,” he implores. 

GOD MOST GOOD (GOODER THAN GOOD)

One of Mark’s many illustrations of God’s supreme goodness is the story of Joseph Merrick, born in 1862 in Leicester, England.  “Few people have suffered from more physical deformities and abnormalities.  All ten of his fingers were stubs.  His head was twice the circumference it should have been.  His disfigured mouth made his speech nearly unintelligible.  His right arm was twice the size of his left arm and his legs barely supported his body weight.  In nineteenth-century England, there was a perverse yet popular form of entertainment known as human novelty exhibitions.”  Joseph Merrick was the headliner in one such freak show, which promoted him as “half man, half elephant.”  

In a London hospital, Joseph piqued the interest of a surgeon, Dr. Frederick Treves.  “In a carefully orchestrated experiment, the good doctor arranged to have a woman walk into Merrick’s room, smile at him, wish him a good morning, and shake his hand.”  The effect was amazing.  ‘As he let go her hand, he bent his head on his knees and sobbed until I thought he would never cease,’ Treves said.  That single smile was the turning point of his life.  It unlocked the little boy within.  ‘He told me afterwards that this was the first woman who had ever smiled at him, and the first woman, in the whole of his life, who had shaken hands with him.’  Over time, Dr. Treves found Joseph Merrick to be more intelligent and articulate than he would have ever imagined.  Dr. Treves managed to smuggle him into private boxes of London theaters to watch plays and listen to operas.  He took him on field trips to the countryside, where Merrick loved listening to songbirds, chasing rabbits, and picking wildflowers.  Toward the end of his short life (at age 27), Merrick’s common refrain was this: ‘I am happy every hour of the day.’” 

Along with the call to look for, recognize, and celebrate miracles, which Mark terms, “Carpe Wonder!” he would have us turn that wonder into gratitude for and fellowship with our wondrous God.  “’You have made us for yourself,’ said Saint Augustine, ‘and our heart is restless until it rests in you.’  Seek the God who is seeking you,” Mark exhorts.  “As you do, I pray that you rediscover the God who is bigger than big, closer than close, and gooder than good.”

MORE ABOUT MARK

Born in Minneapolis, Mark grew up in Naperville, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.  When he was just five years old, his parents took him to see the 1975 movie, The Hiding Place, produced by The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.  The film chronicles the story of Corrie Ten Boom’s family hiding Jews during WWII and the consequences for all. The story significantly influenced Mark, who soon came to Jesus as his Savior.  By the time he turned nineteen, Mark realized that he had been asking Jesus to follow him instead of his following Jesus.

Mark attended the University of Chicago on a scholarship, playing basketball and majoring in pre-law.  After a prayer walk through a cow pasture, he felt called to full-time ministry instead of law, and the next year transferred to Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri.  Mark later married Lora Schmidgall and eventually earned a Doctor of Ministry from Regent University.  He’s now the author of 25 books including his first published title, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and The Circle Maker, one of many New York Times Bestsellers.

The Battersons moved to Washington, DC in 1994 to direct an inner-city ministry.  Mark has served as Lead Pastor of National Community Church since 1996.  Their first service in 1997 was attended 19 people, today, the church’s two campuses see 4-5 thousand coming weekly.

For more information on Mark Batterson click the LINK! And for more information on National Communiy Church click the LINK as well! 

CREDITS

New York Times best-selling author of 25 books, latest: A Million Little Miracles,
Multnomah, 2024 / Lead Pastor of National Community Church (NCC) in Washington, DC,
since 1997, with two campuses; the other in Springfield, VA / NCC owns and operates
Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse, The Miracle Theatre, and The DC Dream Center, and is currently
developing a city block into The Capital Turnaround for events, a child development center, a mixed-use marketplace, and co-working space / Doctor of Ministry degree, Regent University / Married to Lora, three adult children: Parker, Summer, and Josiah