[warning: contains religion] Miracle thoughts
It's Passover and Easter-- miracles all around.

Now, sometimes there comes a time in one's life (well, mine, not necessarily yours) when it's easy to want a miracle. Thankfully, it doesn't happen very often-- because when it has, it's generally been in times that were in some way, well, desperate. (Before you jump to any conclusions, life is good at the moment; I'm just reflecting back here.)

But most of the time, this talk of miracles is really just plain scary. Not in a conscious way, perhaps. But those little things you'd like to see changed even when it seems impossible, things that could use fixing in myself and elsewhere-- it's often hard for me to really, truly want them changed. How bad are they, really? Is the life here in Egypt really so bad?

Miracles, by definition, break the old rules. They aren't just transformative-- they change things in a seemingly uncontrolled, wild way. It would be a little bit easier to handle a miracle that miraculously preserves the status quo. But if that little thing that has been bugging me suddenly got changed, what next? What would be the next thing to hold me back? What will be asked of me then? Safer to just sit here, putting a brick on top of brick, just watching the gravestone that's too heavy to roll away. It's hard to put one's heart into wishing for a miracle if you can stop to think about it, if you're not too busy crying out for help for the brain to engage and the fear to kick in.

It makes me wonder what the Jews in Egypt thought of all of the commotion that Moses was making. If they really didn't have any second thoughts, then either their life must have truly sucked, or their faith was far greater than mine.

And it makes me feel very comforted that Jesus was as human as he was divine, and surely in a position to understand why we fear miracles (even while we pay lip service to wanting to subject ourselves to God's will).

Happy Passover and/or Easter to those of you to whom these mean something!