Miraculous Signs

Mark 8:11 states:

The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. 

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that each and every one of us has asked for a "sign from God" at some point in our life, and when you really stop  to think about it, what indeed are we doing when we make that request--are we not "testing" God? Has there been some deficiency in our life to suggest that God isn't present? What the heck are we missing?

I don't believe I've commented on this before, but if I have, forgive me--by the time this  year is over, I'll have written 150,000 words, so I'm bound to repeat myself from time to time, but there are body processes known as autonomic responses that our bodies do "automatically" (I use that word loosely). In other words, we don't think about these processes, and I want you to consider what it would mean if we did have to think and actively make these processes occur:

1. Respiration--at rest, we inhale and exhale about 20-30 times a minute, and obviously more with exertion. 

2. Heart rate--our heart beats about once a second when at rest, higher under exertion.

3. Eye blinking--I could be wrong here, but I'll go with about 20-30 times a minute--I won't be far off

4. Swallowing--Dr. Pratt could better answer this one, because I'm not really sure that swallowing is an autonomic response, since there are occasions when we consciously swallow, but we also do swallow unconsciously all the time.

I'll leave it at that and not mention processes like digestion, circulation or other processes that happen in our bodies. These processes are so innate that they occur if we're in a coma (although some aid may be needed depending on the depth of the coma). Given all this, I want you to think about one thing:

What if you had to consciously think AND INITIATE each and every one of these physical responses? What if for every breath, you had to say to yourself "Breathe," and the same for every heartbeat, every eye blink? What if for every step you took, you had to tell yourself "Hip, sway the upper leg, which will make the patella pivot and swing the lower leg, at which point the ankle needs to prepare the foot for the proper angle to land"?

And we want SIGNS from God?!?! Aren't they right in front of us during every second of our lives? Let me put some numbers to the processes I outlined, given an 80-year life span:

You will inhale approximately 1,300,000,000 times in your lifetime

You will exhale approximately 1,300,000,000 times in your lifetime

Your heart will beat approximately 1,300,000,000 times in your lifetime

And we won't have to think about any of these almost 4 billion responses, because God designed our bodies in such a manner as to do it for us. I won't speak for you, but that's all the miraculous sign I'll need.

Scott