I've always been amazed by magic: seemingly creating something from nothing, moving an object from my hand to somewhere else without moving it or taking a cell phone and putting it into a melon. (I saw that trick on Ellen once. I still have no idea how that happened!) But these are just tricks, slights of hand as they say. They aren't really creating something from nothing.

God did that though, created something from nothing, and it's not magic. It's not a trick. It's no slight of hand. He created us. Before we were conceived, we were nothing. There isn't a little bank of souls up in heaven waiting for mommies and daddies to want them. That's more of a story we tell little kids. Before we were conceived, we didn't exist, and then God created us (something) from nothing.

WOW! It's hard to comprehend. So we call it magic, but really it's a miracle.

Miracles are hard for us to understand and comprehend. And if we're being honest, by "hard" I mean impossible. In the first reading we hear about the miracles that were being done through the faith of the apostles in the early Church. People were walking, being healed and experiencing miracles. The witnesses didn't call it magic (I don't think they had a reference point for card tricks and cell phones in melons in 1st Century Lystra). They called them Zeus and Hermes, greek gods, their only point of reference for 'great tricks' in their culture.

But these were tricks, they were miracles. Miracles are hard for us to comprehend because they defy natural law. They don't compute, a little like a cell phone showing up in a melon. We have to see them with the eyes of faith. They require us to trust in God's goodness and mercy. Miracles force us to see beyond what is possible to what is eternal, what is beyond us, and what extraordinary and heavenly.

God allows us to see miracles here on earth so we can begin to comprehend just a little about how amazing He is! Look for all of the miracles surrounding you today in nature, in friends, in Mass, in babies - and be amazed at how great our God is!

Where has God worked a miracle in your life? Have you thanked Him for it?

Do you believe in miracles? What is golding you back?

Where in life do you need a miracle? Where have you asked God for one?

"God works miracles."

"Lord I believe, help my unbelief."

"Jesus, I trust in you."

God allows us to see miracles here on earth so we can begin to comprehend just a little about how amazing He is! Look for all of the miracles surrounding you today in nature, in friends, in Mass, in babies - and be amazed at how great our God is! At the end of the day, write down all of the places you saw God work a miracle today. Then write one place in your life where you need God to work a miracle and ask for the trust in God to know it will happen.