“Miracles Today? Really? Really!”
By Pastor Ron Buxton
Some people will read the following words and disregard them altogether. That doesn’t bother me. Even some self-identifying Christians will do so also. That, I’ll admit, does bother me a little. You see, the God of the Bible–I truly believe–still does miracles.
24 years ago in Bible college, we had to memorize a definition of a miracle by Dr. Patrick Gallagher as a “sovereign, all powerful, supernatural act of God, sensed by man, performed with redemptive context, through exercise of divine efficiency greater than natural law.” And so, allow me to give you one testimony of a miracle so defined.
As we were pioneering a new orphanage in Aldama Mexico, the children were slowly arriving. And, if memory serves me correctly, we had less than twenty kids at that time. None of them were toddlers or babies then. That’s an important detail to know.
One day, an unknown donor mysteriously showed up at our remote location. Now, that wasn’t totally unexpected, but neither was that a frequent occurrence. What they brought, however, was seemingly unneeded: a very large box of baby formula. To repeat, we had no babies nor toddlers then. And so, placing that box in our pantry, we thought that maybe we’d mix it into the breakfast oatmeal for extra nutrition.
At that time, we would all attend a Tuesday night service at a local, rural Mexican church called “El Alfarero”. It was a poor church. And that’s where we went after receiving the large box of baby formula. Now, in many churches after the opening prayer of the pastor, folks are invited to briefly greet one another. And that’s what we did. Usually, I shook hands with those that I already knew before I went in search of the visitors. And that’s when I saw it.
In front of my eyes was a baby basket next to a poor young couple. Instinctively, I headed towards that basket, fully expecting to compliment the parents. That is NOT what happened next. In fact, I lost ability to say anything. Breathing even became difficult. And I was not alone. My eyes were staring at an emaciated baby that also labored to even breathe! You see, due to insufficient nutrition from breast milk, that baby was literally starving to death. And that’s when a near-audible voice came into my head: “Go back to the orphanage, and get that box!”
Folks, what happened just a few hours earlier was NOT a coincidence! It was a miracle to save the life of a little Mexican baby. There is no doubt in my mind about that. Could God have sent that box directly to that poor couple? Yes. He certainly could have. But He didn’t. Why? Well, for one thing, God wanted a young man from Maine—living 3000 miles away from where he grew up—to see His miraculous and redemptive power. You see, God is a God of miracles! And He wanted me to share that today with you also.
