22 One of the meeting-place leaders named Jairus came. When he saw Jesus, he fell to his knees, 23 beside himself as he begged, "My dear daughter is at death's door. Come and lay hands on her so she will get well and live." 24 Jesus went with him, the whole crowd tagging along, pushing and jostling him. 25 A woman who had suffered a condition of hemorrhaging for twelve years - 26 a long succession of physicians had treated her, and treated her badly, taking all her money and leaving her worse off than before - 27 had heard about Jesus. She slipped in from behind and touched his robe. 28 She was thinking to herself, "If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well." 29 The moment she did it, the flow of blood dried up. She could feel the change and knew her plague was over and done with. 30 At the same moment, Jesus felt energy discharging from him. He turned around to the crowd and asked, "Who touched my robe?" 31 His disciples said, "What are you talking about? With this crowd pushing and jostling you, you're asking, 'Who touched me?' Dozens have touched you!" 32 But he went on asking, looking around to see who had done it. 33 The woman, knowing what had happened, knowing she was the one, stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt before him, and gave him the whole story. 34 Jesus said to her, "Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you're healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague."
It is easy, with a text like today's, to make faith something magic rather than deeply human.
The power to heal was not in Jesus garment. It was hidden someplace in what happened between the woman and Jesus. Had she not reached out, she would have never known this healing. Had she not risked doing what was both forbidden and scary, as well as a bit selfish, nothing would have happened.
Miracles happen when we believe in them enough to make them happen. This doesn’t mean we create the miracle; it could mean that we have something to do with being open to the possibility of a miracle happening in our lives. The miracle begins and ends with God, yet it also includes us. We have to want it bad enough to even risk doing what is forbidden to get it!
Don’t wait for God to create a miracle for you and lay it at your feet. Create the possibility of a miracle and lay it at God’s feet. This is what faith dares to do! It dares to believe that God can and will make miracles out of our efforts. God will create the miracle of reconciliation as we open our hearts and mind to being reconciling. God will create the miracle of forgiveness as we confess and become forgiving. This in no way diminishes God’s power. It makes God even more real, and intimate. Not a magician who does things we cannot do; but a Friend who walks with us and enables miracles to happen.

Miracles are impossible
things that happen anyway.”
Lin Jennewein
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, help me be a miracle this week.
Keep me open to the impossible happening in, for, and through me.”
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