I'm Looking for a Miracle!

She was jolly!

A couple of months ago, Bianca and I went to New York to see Ingrid Michaelson's Holiday Hop. For those who don't know, I'm a HUGE Ingrid Michaelson fan, and was really psyched for the holiday weekend. I had everything planned out:

1. Friday night - Ingrid
2. Saturday night - A Broadway musical
3. Sunday night - back to DC to see If/Then (another musical) 

Everything was working out perfectly: Ingrid was amazing, we went to see Annie, and we were on the noon bus departing to DC. I would OF COURSE be on time for a 7 pm curtain.

this is a DC snow storm...

But alas, there was a snowstorm. And suddenly, I was freaking out. Oh how I prayed! Cars were spinning off the road; I could see them in ditches. The bus was moving extremely slowly, and suddenly a 4 hour bus-ride was looking like a 7+ hour bus ride. I needed...a miracle.

A miracle is "an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause" per dictionary.com.  

What did I hope the "miracle" would be? A parting of the cars (Red Sea style)? Nope. All I wanted was for it to stop snowing. If it had stopped snowing, in conjunction with my prayer, I would have attributed it to God as a miracle. A bona fide miracle! Though, it would have more likely been a natural weather occurrence.

 But I would have saw it as a miracle, because I was looking for one. *

On the flip side, I wonder if miracles would go denied/ignored if I wasn't looking for one. Does my faith allow for miracles? If it does, will I see them? If it doesn't, will I be blind to them? I don't really know. I want to write a series of blogs on doubt, but I'm not sure I'll have enough material... However, when I think of doubt (from a biblical standpoint) my mind automatically goes to "Doubting Thomas." So I was going to write about him, but when I got to John chapter 20, I found something else:

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” John 20:1-2

So Mary comes to the tomb, looking for Jesus. He's not there, so she's having a freak out. She tells the disciples, they come, and they freak out a little. They recognize he's gone out of the tomb, but don't really grasp what that means:  

 For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes. John 20:9-10

Am I the only one like: "they went home?!" They didn't discuss what this could mean or call the other 9 for a pow wow? They probably went home to cry. This was insult to injury: "You kill our teacher and now you take away His body? Rude!" Note: I have no idea what they were actually thinking. 

Mary doesn't leave though. She's standing outside the tomb crying. As she's crying she looks into the tomb (like maybe this time He'll be in there?) and she sees two angels. And they ask her why she's so broke down, and she goes into her spiel about how her Lord's body has been taken, and how if they are the culprits they can just tell her where He is so she can take Him away. In my mind, she's in hysterics. But then:

empty tomb

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). - John 20:14-16

This scripture really got to me this week. I love when Jesus says "Whom are you seeking?" It struck me that the person she was looking for, if she knew who she was looking for...would never have been found in a tomb! 

She was looking for a dead Jesus. So there was no recognition when she saw an alive Jesus. She didn't go to the tomb seeking a miracle. Her expectation was steeped in the reality of three days prior. She saw her teacher die on a cross. So whoever this man was, maybe the gardener, she wasn't looking for him to be the risen Christ. If she was looking for the risen Christ, she would have been out looking for a miracle. And she would have seen it in the empty tomb! She wouldn't have needed to see Jesus' face. She wouldn't have needed to hear His voice, she would have saw something explainable (e.g. haters took Jesus' body out of the tomb to desecrate it) and known something miraculous (Jesus rose from the dead).

We wonder if miracles exist today. We question if God is still in the business of showing His glory and His might in the Earth. But how could we ever expect to see such when we're not even looking for it?

Food for thought.

*The bus was late. I missed the play. I cried.