God Alone

You've probably heard about the wonders of science and all of the things that it is capable of. Whenever someone goes into remission from cancer, when a broken bone is set, when a faulty joint is replaced, we praise advances in science for the ability to heal. When we look at communications coming online for persons in remote parts of the planet, assistive devices for the disabled, self-driving cars, we praise advances in science for making life "better." When we are able to remove plastics from the oceans, purify water, restore natural habitats, and bring species back from the brink of extinction, we praise science...again...for all that it enables us to do. 

But hear me on this: as much as we like to praise science, the truth is that there are a lot of things even about what we call "science" that we don't understand. And there are many more things that our "science" cannot explain. 

These are what we call miracles. 

And God is the only one who works miracles. (Psalm 136:4)

I have worked in medicine long enough to tell you, without hesitation, that there are things happening in the world that all of our advances in science would never get us anywhere close to. There are things happening that are a dozen steps ahead of where we are. While we're still trying to understand the problem and come up with a course of action, miracles are taking place that beat us to the punch. 

I could tell you stories even from my own journey - times when science wasn't sure what to do, but by complete "accident," stumbled upon something anyway. It looks like science did it, but science had no idea what they were doing. They were throwing molecules at the wall and hoping something sticks. 

God, on the other hand, had a plan. 

One of the most confusing narratives from all the Bible for me is back in Exodus, when Moses and Aaron are performing God's miracles for Pharaoh and his magicians are coming behind them and performing the exact same signs. Moses and Aaron turned all the water in the land to blood, then we're told the magicians did the same thing. How do you know? If all the water is already blood, where did the magicians find any water leftover to prove they could do the same thing? If the land is already covered with frogs, how do you know your magicians produced even more frogs? (And why, by the way, would that be a victory?) 

I don't understand, with the completeness and totality of God's miraculous actions, how anyone could say someone else did the same thing at the same time. 

And then, I came to live in the 21st Century. Here we are, living an Egypt life, always claiming that our "science" is responsible for the things that God has done. That our science is just as good, maybe even better. That our science is the thing that's saving us. 

Friends, we have already been saved. And as much as we sometimes hate to admit it, there are things in this world our science just will never understand. We're standing over here trying to count frogs and claiming we alone have saved some water, but the truth is, these things were already done. They are absolute miracles. 

And God is the only one who works miracles.