If someone asked you — “When was the last time you experienced a miracle?” — what would you answer?
1. Never. Miracles are only something you read about in the Bible.
2. Very Occasionally. People do sometimes wake up from a coma or beat a diagnosis…
3. All the time.
Correct answer? # 3
The way God created our entire natural world to work together is one huge miracle! Miracles are actually the way things WORK — rather than the exception to the way things work... A bulb buried months ago in the wintry ground becomes a beautiful daffodil… We plant tiny seeds and they become vegetables, flowers, shrubs, trees… A tiny green dot on the back of a milkweed leaf becomes a green and yellow caterpillar — which becomes a chrysalis — which becomes a monarch butterfly… The many parts of our body work together, enabling us to breathe, run, dream, eat, laugh, sing… If we get a cut on our finger, our body works to heal it… The sun comes up every morning, driving our weather, ocean currents, seasons,
climate and makes all plant life possible through photosynthesis… Trees absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale and create oxygen for us to breathe… The list is endless!!! If we truly pay attention, it is impossible NOT to see miracles EVERYWHERE— all the time!!
Natalie Sleeth understood this... she knew about miracles… Who???
Natalie, born in 1930, played piano from the age of four — and in 1952 she earned a degree in music at Wellesley College. She married The Rev. Dr. Ron Sleeth, a professor of homiletics and president of W. Virginia Wesleyan College and while leading the busy life that entailed, she also found time to be an organist and to pursue the study of composition and choral arranging. In her lifetime, she wrote over 200 highly successful selections for church and school, many written especially for children’s choirs.
In 1985, her beloved Ron was diagnosed with cancer and he died soon afterward. But — as they were living through this difficult time of saying good-bye, she wrote both music and text for an anthem the choir will sing on Sunday — IN THE BULB THERE IS A FLOWER, (click here to listen) which declares HOPE — even in the midst of the dark time they were experiencing. Since then, it has become one of the most well-loved hymns written in the 20th century, often requested for funerals and memorial services as the ultimate statement of faith...
“In the bulb there is a flower, in the seed an apple tree
In cocoons a hidden promise, butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody
There’s a dawn in every darkness bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future, what it holds, a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
In our end is our beginning, in our time, infinity…
In our doubt there is believing, in our life, eternity.
In our death, a resurrection, at the last a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.”
In wonderful, almost child-like simplicity, Natalie Sleeth distills the heart of our Christian faith into three short verses.
Perhaps that is another miracle in itself?