By Chris WittsWednesday 13 Dec 2023Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
From time to time we see some amazing news stories on the TV news or in social media. Like what happened on 30 June 2017 on a California freeway. Frank Pisano was piloting a small twin-engine Cessna with his wife Janan.
Frank had been flying small planes for 27 years, but this day the right engine died, and he had to make a crash landing—right in rush hour on a major freeway. The plane clipped a fire truck as it landed and then burst into flames. But nobody else was injured—just the pilot and his wife who had to get out of the plane in a hurry. Janan was OK—she was able to open the door, but Frank was trapped at the cockpit.
There were 30-feet-high flames outside the plane, and he felt this was the end. But the off-duty fireman whose truck was slightly damaged by the wing, ran through the flames and pulled him to safety. Other motorists had stopped and gave help until the ambulance services arrived. Despite the heat, no-one died at the scene—two friends had planned to travel with them on the short flight, but changed their plans at the last moment.
Frank Pisano had multiple injuries and was hospitalised for four weeks, but recovered well enough without major problems. Both prayed to God for their protection during the ordeal—Frank was ready to die and prayed, “God, take me. My wife is safe at least for the kids”. The circumstances of this crash-landing were remarkable because everyone thought people inside would have died. But not so. Frank says. “It’s like God put his hands around the fuselage where we were sitting and said, ‘I’m not going to let anything happen to you.’ “He protected us!”
After they were pulled from the plane, the intense fire caused the headphones they were wearing to become a melted ball of plastic. Frank says:
That is the biggest miracle of all time…If you don’t believe in God listen to this story and tell me there isn’t a God up above. This was not luck…It’s unbelievable I didn’t hit the light poles or any signs. If I had to do it again there is no way I could do what I did.
Before the accident Frank didn’t give much credence to miracles. He said, “I knew they happened, but I never expected them to happen to me.”
Do You Believe in Miracles?
Do you believe in miracles? Maybe you feel like the conversation in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland: Alice and the Queen were talking and Alice says, “There’s no use trying—one can’t believe impossible things”. Then the Queen replied, “I daresay you haven’t had much practice…When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!”
Some people are very sceptical—but I believe in a God of miracles. The Bible tells us of many miraculous events and happenings. Our God is big enough to do whatever he wants—and sometimes he divinely rearranges things like a burning plane on a freeway. His divine protection is a fact explained by many—but what is a miracle?
Definition of a miracle: An act of God using or exceeding the laws of nature to perform humanly impossible feats to reveal his power and glorify himself.
It is an amazing thing to see an act of God that can’t be explained any other way. It’s nothing to do with luck or coincidence. God can break into our world any time he chooses to do things that we cannot explain. A miracle is an action from God that is supernatural.
A miracle is a supernatural event which has no human explanation. More than that, a miracle is a supernatural event which suspends natural law. In other words, natural law stops and is suspended while God acts, moves back out and then the natural course continues. Jesus said in Luke 18:27, “What is impossible with men is possible with God”. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in the day of trouble.”
Do you believe that God protects you moment by moment? The Bible says he does. He knows our comings and goings, what happened yesterday, and what will happen tomorrow. You can trust in God for all things—even those events you cannot explain. God, is omnipotent—his presence hovers over us as a shield from our circumstances in life. God protects us from our circumstances not only because he is aware, because he is always present. God is like our shadow. Your shadow. He follows you every moment of the day. There is virtually nowhere to go to escape it.
In fact, the only way to hide it from view is to escape the light of day and to retreat to the darkness. When you are walking in the light, the shadow is clearly seen, walking with you, wherever you go. God has promised us, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” If God is there, there is nothing in our circumstances that should cause us to fear, for he is Lord over them.