Miracles? Meh...Have You Watched the Grass Grow?

I just read something that really impacted me and I decided to come write about it right away, so here goes...

This year has introduced a new facet of our mission at Shrine of the True Cross. The assistant director of religious ed asked us to open the first half hour of each night. Joyously we obliged and we open up with a game or video of some sort and a brief presentation over the upcoming Sunday Gospel. I usually start prepping for the next week a week in advance. I presented tonight so I'm already delving into the next Sunday's Gospel which is on the wedding at Cana in John John 2:1-11 .

I try to do plenty of thinking, praying, reading, and listening over each reading. Tonight I did a Google search for "fathers of the church water to wine". I have not done a lot of reading of the fathers, it has been on my least of things to do. What came up was a reflection from St. Augustine on this Gospel passage. This is only the first paragraph, the only thing I've read so far:

The miracle indeed of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby He

made the water into wine, is not marvelous to those who know that it was God's doing. For He who made wine on that day at the marriage feast, in those sex water-pots, which He commanded to be filled with water, the self-same does this every year in vines. For even as that which the servants put into the water-pots was turned into wine by the doing of the Lord, so in like manner also is what the clouds pour forth changed into wine by the doing of the same Lord. But we do not wonder at the latter, because it happens every year: it has lost its marvelousness by its constant recurrence. And yet it suggests a greater consideration than that which was done in the water-pots. For who is there that considers the words of God, whereby this whole world is governed and regulated, who is not amazed and overwhelmed with miracles? If he considers the vigorous power of a single grain of any seed whatever, it is a mighty thing, it inspires him with awe. But since men, intent on a different matter, have lost the consideration of the works of God, by which they should daily praise Him as the Creator, God has, as it were, reserved to Himself the doing of certain extraordinary actions, that, by striking them with wonder, He might rouse men as from sleep to worship Him. A dead man has risen again; men marvel: so many are born daily, and none marvels. If we reflect more considerately, it is a matter of greater wonder for one to be who was not before, than for one who was to come to life again. Yet the same God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, does by His word all these things; and it is He who created that governs also. The former miracles He did by His Word, God with Himself; the latter miracles He did by the same Word incarnate and for us made man. As we wonder at the things which were done by the man Jesus, so let us wonder at the things which where done by Jesus God. By Jesus God were made heaven, and earth, and the sea, all the garniture of heaven, the abounding riches of the earth, and the fruitfulness of the sea-all these things which lie within the reach of our eyes were made by Jesus God. And we look at these things, and if His own spirit is in us they in such manner please us, that we praise Him that contrived them; not in such manner that turning ourselves to the works we turn away from the Maker, and, in a manner, turning our face to the tings made and our backs to Him that made them.

Yes, Jesus did great miracles. But, it's easy to forget that God sustains, God provides, God is acting in every second of every day holding everything in existence to do what he has created it to do. The seasons, plants, animals, us creating new life, gravity, the tides, starts dying, stars being born, etc. This is why it is so easy to step out into nature and imagine, to wonder, to wander. I think it is why people, even people who don't believe in anything, find it so easy to be enthralled with the beauty of the universe. I think it's why I was able to make this IG and Facebook post about my daughters playing in a drain along a bike path behind our house:

What I love about Tolkien, what I love about Lewis, what I love about Rowling, what I love about Bill Watterson, and what I love about my daughters is that the world IS more than what we can just see. This bike path, once you step off and set your foot into the grass the grass becomes a farm and your parents have passed away and you and your sister were left to carry on. Those trees are a forest and your warrior father has to teach you to fight because there is war brewing across the river (ditch). Trolls and dragons also sometimes lurk in those trees. That drain, it’s a kitchen. Sometimes it also serves as a dungeon when you are captured by a monster. If you pull branches from the plant on the left you now have swords or lightsabers. 

“Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the sun.” -Tolkien. 

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” - C.S Lewis. 

“Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power to that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.” -J. K. Rowling

But how easy is it to walk by a rose bush and not stop to smell them. How easy is it to run down the same path day after day and not notice the trees or the birds that live in them. How easy is it to not pay attention and get bother by the children you have created along with the Creator. How easy is it to live in a house and not know the people who surround you? Each blade of grass contains wonder an mystery. Each person has the image and likeness of his or her Creator. Each sunrise and sunset tells us good morning and good night respectively. I would like to regain wonder in every day life.

1 Hallelujah!

I

Praise the LORD from the heavens;

praise him in the heights.

2Praise him, all you his angels;

give praise, all you his hosts.^a

3Praise him, sun and moon;

praise him, all shining stars.

4Praise him, highest heavens,^*

you waters above the heavens.

5Let them all praise the LORD’s name;

for he commanded and they were created,^b

6Assigned them their station forever,

set an order that will never change.

II

7Praise the LORD from the earth,

you sea monsters and all the deeps of the sea;^c

8Lightning and hail, snow and thick clouds,

storm wind that fulfills his command;

9Mountains and all hills,

fruit trees and all cedars;^d

10Animals wild and tame,

creatures that crawl and birds that fly;^e

11Kings of the earth and all peoples,

princes and all who govern on earth;

12Young men and women too,

old and young alike.

13Let them all praise the LORD’s name,

for his name alone is exalted,

His majesty above earth and heaven.^f

14^*He has lifted high the horn of his people;

to the praise of all his faithful,

the Israelites, the people near to him.

Hallelujah! - Psalm 148