The Miracles We See Today

In today’s gospel, an official of Cana sought out Jesus to plead for the healing of his sick son. Jesus responds to the man that unless people see miracles happen, they will never believe. The man pleads with Jesus again and Jesus tells the man to go, that his son will live. As the man returns home, his slaves meet him on the road and let him know that his son is recovering, seemingly beginning at the moment Jesus informed the man that his son would live. 

It’s difficult for me to hear the word ‘sick’ and not reflect on all the loved ones lost this past year. I think of how for months we desperately yearned for an instant miracle for the world, like Jesus provided this man’s son. Unfortunately, we didn’t get instant healing; we did get a different miracle though. We got the miracle of healthcare workers around the world coming together to provide comfort to the sick as best they could. Even more amazing, we got the miracle of multiple effective vaccines. These vaccines were the product of years of meticulous research combined with luck. In the scheme of vaccination research, the COVID vaccines seem near as instantaneous as Jesus’ healing. For thousands of years of human civilization, we had no vaccines at all. The Polio vaccine took 50 years of effort. We still don’t have a vaccine for HIV/AIDS, which kills almost 700,000 people every year. 

Because Jesus is not physically here to heal the sick today, God must work through His people. I see that work in our healthcare workers, our grocery store checkout clerks, restaurant employees, custodians, vaccine research teams, and the vaccine providers at sites like Fair Park and the Chickasaw Nation, who graciously opened their vaccine supply to educators and their families. The USA is currently administering an average of 2.3 million vaccine doses each day, and those numbers keep climbing. As I read the news in the past week, I can’t help but feel like the official on the road home being told that there is hope. I may be able to hug my parents again before Summer is here. Jesus told the father of the sick boy, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” A year certainly isn’t instantaneous, but we aren’t Jesus. With that in mind, what His people have accomplished in the past year is nothing short of a sign and a wonder worth believing in.

Author: Elizabeth Bramlett, Science Department