A CAPITOL PRAYER BRIDGE

By James Wilson

Miracles are nothing more – and nothing less – than incidents of God’s intervention in our lives.  The reality that our hearts continue to beat is no less miraculous than a limb growing out or a cancer being cancelled – unless we really believe a heartbeat is an involuntary muscular activity.  Somebody volunteers.

The message of Romans 8:28 that God works all things together for good in those who love Him and are called according to His purposes is simply His declaration that He is a chronic interventionist.  The miracles in this narrative of the capitol prayer bridge journey are not primarily for my benefit, although I praise Him for taking care of me in the way that He has.  Has He repaired a heart in which the bypasses were detaching sans medical care through my prayers?  Did He restore the ligaments in a knee in one person and realign a spinal column in another as I worshipped with others?  Did a woman discover her ancient sins really are forgiven as I laid hands on and blessed her?  God does not love me any more passionately than He loves every human being He has created and to whom He is calling in this season of His special favor.  These stories are told and these incidents are occurring to waken everyone reading them to the authority God placed in us through baptism and commitment to the Lordship of Jesus.  We are the people who love God and are called according to His purposes.  He doesn’t care whether we are charismatic, evangelical, or mainline; He cares passionately that we confess with our lips, believe in our hearts, and struggle to match behavior to belief.

And to any reader who has not yet made such a commitment, what are you waiting           for?  To any who has talked the talk but is not walking the walk in its fullness…rise, take up your pallet and walk.  The time of paralysis is past.

Washington was the last state I visited.  There I had the opportunity to teach in some depth on the theme, “For Such a Time as This.”  I shared the reality of the Wild Horse Nebula, a cluster of stars and dark matter thirty million light years from earth.  This nebula is so distant it was undiscovered until the Hubble Telescope was placed in orbit.  In the heart of this celestial body is a black hole several million miles across. That hole is shaped like a cross – the Cross – and we become aware of it only in this century.  Does not the Scripture (Psalms 19:1) say, “The heavens declare the glory of God.”

Laminim is a protein molecule so tiny it can only be seen beneath an electron microscope – an invention of the past half century.  It is what is known as an adhesion protein; its function is literally to hold the human body together, joining bone to muscle, skin to flesh, enzymes to organs.  It too is shaped like a cross – the Cross – and we discover it only now.  Does not the Scripture (Col. 1:17) say, “In Him all things hold together.”

Had the Hubble been invented a few thousand years earlier we would not know of the Wild Horse – the universe would not have expanded enough to provide sufficient contrast between light and dark materials for viewing.  A few millennia later and the nebula would be too distant even for the Hubble to pick it out of the cosmos.  Reality is we were born for such a time as this – a time of unprecedented opportunity and equally unprecedented challenge.

The last half century has featured more documented miracles and decisions to live for Jesus Christ than all previous seasons combined – including the explosion of faith we call the First Century; the Lord has put it on steroids in the last half decade.  We live in a time of darkness not seen since the world began, a time of wars and rumors of war; men calling evil good and good evil; a time of Christians being hated for the name of Christ we bear.  And we are nowhere – in scripture or the template of history – promised anything but a shortening of the suffering that accompanies the birth pangs of the Kingdom.  Yet when we undertake a journey in obedience – as I did – even a lost cell phone charger is replaced by way of gift (Wyoming) and the tires my mechanic said would need rotating and replacement when I left were found to be without defect when I returned – fifty-two hundred miles later.  He really does work it all together for good before the fat lady sings.