Daily Reflection
May 22nd, 1999
by
Tamora Whitney
English
 
Acts 28:16-20, 30-31
John 21:20-25
 
[John 21:25] But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

As amazing as the gospels are and so full of the miracles of Jesus, of course the miracles listed are only a tiny percentage of the wonders the Lord has done.  As amazing as the miracles are-- turning water to wine and walking on water-- of course Jesus did other maybe even more amazing things, but there wasn’t room in the Bible to list them all.  As amazing as the healings were—curing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead-- He probably did many more miracles that we didn’t even read about.  As a writer and an English professor, I know that there is always much more to the story than is put down in the words.  There just isn’t room to record everything.  The world could not contain all the books that could be written.  The stories of all that Jesus has done are wonderful, but how much more wonderful to think of all the other things He did, and all the other miracles he performed.  Of course the world itself could not contain the books that could be written about all the wonders he performed, and continues to perform.  I hadn’t even thought about that before I read the gospel for today.  I had always been appropriately amazed at the miracles Jesus performed, but now I’m even more amazed, because now I realize those were just a drop in the bucket.  They were just a small sampling of the miracles and wonders much too numerous to count!

One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite Shakespeare plays is from Hamlet, when Hamlet says. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”  There are more wonders in the world than we are aware of, and there are more miracles around us everyday than we can even imagine.  Jesus did so many more things in his life here on earth than are recorded in the gospels, and he continues to perform miracles and do wonders, but so many that they cannot all be written down.  In this Easter season, and the season of springtime, everywhere we look we are surrounded with miracles.  There are violets poking through the grass, earlier there were jonquils poking through the snow.  It seems like winter goes on forever, then one day we look around and the grass is turning green and the leaves are budding on the trees and the flowers are starting to bloom, even though it seems just yesterday it was cold and snowing.  Spring time is the wonderful miracle, but one that many people might not acknowledge or record.  Of course, the biggest Easter miracle is the resurrection, and it is appropriately recorded in the gospels, but the continuing miracle is that Jesus is alive in our hearts and continues to perform miracles all around us everyday that were they all to be recorded, “the world itself could not contain all the books that would be written.”

 twhitney@creighton.edu
 
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