The making of miracles

 (Thanks to my friend Kirk Richards for this wonderful painting)

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about miracles, apparently. They are still very much on my mind. I'll share just a thought or two about what I've been learning. Far more interesting to me would be to learn what others think and feel about the making of miracles in their lives. So please share.

One of the most interesting things I've come to discover about miracles is the fact that EVERY miracle requires at least two parties: The one providing the miracle (that would be God) and the one receiving the miracle (that would be us.) There is a great verse in the Book of Mormon that teaches us this truth: "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them...(Ether 12:12.) How interesting that it doesn't say he won't do a miracle, but rather that he can't. This seems to be saying that part of the eternal law of miracles requires that the recipient of the miracle has a critical role to play in the miracle. 

Another principle I've come to better understand about how miracles happen in our lives relates to their ultimate purpose. From what I have been reading in the scriptures, every miracle is intended to bring us closer to "at one ment" with the Savior. Whether it's the blessing of physical healing of some kind (the body becoming "at one" or "in full harmony") or the miracle of an unbelieving soul rediscovering the intimate presence of God in their lives (or spiritual "at one ment",) the ultimate purpose of miracles seem always to be to draw us closer to the Father and the Son.

One last thought as it relates to miracles is found in the following remarkable quote from President Boyd K. Packer:

“There are two kinds of faith. One of them functions ordinarily in the life of every soul. It is the kind of faith born by experience; it gives us certainty that a new day will dawn, that spring will come, that growth will take place. It is the kind of faith that relates us with confidence to that which is scheduled to happen...

There is another kind of faith, rare indeed. This is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. It is the kind of faith that is worthy and prepared and unyielding, and it calls forth things that otherwise would not be. It is the kind of faith that moves people. It is the kind of faith that sometimes moves things. Few men posses it. It comes by gradual growth. It is a marvelous, even a transcendent, power, a power as real and as invisible as electricity. Directed and channeled, it has great effect.”

I don't know about you, but the second kind of faith is the kind of faith I aspire to have. The kind of faith "that causes things to happen." To me that sounds like the faith that will make miracles.