God's Miracles

Job had every trouble conceivable to man. Every single one. He faced loss, disease, brokenness, condemnation. His own friends, his very good friends, sat next to him while he scratched himself with broken shards of pottery until his boils were bleeding all over the ash heap that used to be his life, and they told him what a terrible sinner he must be - a terrible sinner in secret, since he had such a high reputation in the entire community. 

Wow, Job. You're just not who we thought you were. And now, look at you - all exposed like this. Did you think you could get away with it forever? 

The entire book of Job is basically one long discourse encouraging the man to just "curse God and die." Just call God out. Blame God for the trouble. Take Him to the mat. 

And yet, Job - from his very own ash heap - cannot stop talking about the goodness of God. The rightness of God. The righteousness of God. 

The miracles of God. 

I don't know that anybody in all the Bible talks about the miracles of God the way that Job does. 

In his discourse to his friends, while they're busy condemning him and judging some kind of private lift they've concluded he must be living, from the pile of rubble that used to be his life, covered in ashes, bleeding from his boils, childless, money-less, homeless, Job declares, 

He does wonderful things that confound, infinite numbers of miracles.

Infinite numbers of miracles. I doubt at this point that Job could even count, realistically, the numbers of things that he's lost in his tragedy. He's described early in his story as an extremely wealthy man. Can he number his losses at all? Could he even try? 

Yet, here he is saying that if there's something in this world that you simply can't count, it's God's miracles. If there's something it's impossible to put a number on, it's God's goodness. His friends are trying to get him to reflect on how empty his life has become, and how quickly, and all Job can talk about is the fullness of God. 

All this stuff? It's nothing. Look at the miracles. We could talk about the miracles forever. 

Life is about perspective - what are you looking at? 

If you're looking at your shards and ashes, all you'll ever count is your losses. And maybe you could count forever. Maybe, like Job, your losses seem neverending and your life is truly empty. 

But maybe, it's not as empty as it seems. Maybe there are miracles all around you, even in a time like this. Maybe...maybe God is just as Job has seen Him - the Lord of infinite numbers of miracles, wonderful things that confound human minds. 

Maybe you just have to be willing to be confounded.