Liberated Life Bible Commentaries use real words, to uncover the real stories, and apply what we learn to our real lives. One of the most challenging aspects of this work is understanding the nature of the miraculous. How do we relate the seemingly impossible to our everyday life and experience? For some, the suggestion that we need to believe the miracles recorded in the Bible happened as written is a significant barrier to engaging with the message of God's unconditional Love. 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes a miracle as, “an extraordinary event taken as a sign of the supernatural power of God.” Miracles are often understood as grand, awe-inspiring events, such as Moses parting the Red Sea or Jesus healing a man with a withered hand. We believe the miraculous is also occurring in the small everyday phenomena that often go unnoticed, such as a shift in consciousness redirecting someone’s attention in a new way. This can lead to significant and sudden changes occurring in the world, which would be described as miracles. 

An example is Rosa Parks deciding not to get up from her seat on a bus in Alabama, USA in 1955. Her one act of defiance was the result of sustained effort, strategic planning, and widespread activism over many years. Inspired by God, this led to the Civil Rights Movement and resulted in widespread legislative change in the USA outlawing racial segregation. Rosa Parks' single act of defiance was a "micro-miracle" that resulted in the seemingly impossible happening. In chaos theory, this is known as the Butterfly Effect. 

As far as the biblical narrative is concerned, any extraordinary event is a sign of God’s work and is described as a miracle. Taken as a whole, we believe these are logical outcomes of many prior moments leading up to this. As an infinite and loving reality, God is present and at work in all lives, whether we see it or not. We offer ways to recover this truth through our studies of the biblical text. 

Our lives are intrinsically connected to others, and denying this can lead to injustices being perpetuated in the world. When sacred writings are used to promote messages of division, intolerance, and hatred it makes them a tool of oppression rather than liberation. It is our daily commitment to promote ways to draw people closer together through the biblical text, rather than further apart. We seek to do this in all we say and do, by being a living expression of God's loving and miraculous presence in the world every day. 

Be the light, life, and love of God's presence