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{"id":1499,"date":"2023-09-30T09:47:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T13:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/ichasesunsets\/?p=1499"},"modified":"2023-09-30T09:47:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-30T13:47:13","slug":"a-strange-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/ichasesunsets\/2023\/09\/a-strange-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"A Strange Miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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OpenClipart Vectors<\/p>\n

True Story<\/h2>\n \u201cWhen you have done all to stand, stand \u2026\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n To tell this story, I must let go of my ego and make a very personal confession: God gave me a testimony, a strange miracle,<\/em> and I aim to proclaim it \u2026 even though it\u2019s a little embarrassing:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Strange Problem<\/h2>\n \ \u00a0<\/p>\n \ I was getting ready for school one morning, and I realized in a panic that something was missing. My dental partial plate was not in the bathroom cup where it was supposed to be. (Yes, some of my teeth are not real due to an infection I carried in my jaw unaware.) It was also not in \u201cplace number 2\u201d\u2013the only other place I might have put it. Believe me, that partial plate is something I take <\/span>very good <\/span><\/i>care of because it affects the way I look and it is extremely expensive.<\/span><\/p>\n \ \u00a0<\/p>\n \ I quickly searched everywhere in the house where I might have been since the previous evening, and found nothing. Even though it was ridiculous, I also searched the trash, the car, the porch, the driveway, and the potted plants. I even took a walk through the basement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \ \u00a0<\/p>\n \ Nothing. No hint. No partial plate anywhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A Temporary Solution<\/h2>\n*** ** \u00a0<\/p>\n ** This was a horror to me: to face junior high and high school students looking like an October jack-o-lantern. Thankfully, I had retained a rubber tooth guard (the athletic kind) from the time right after I had the teeth pulled. It didn\u2019t look great, but I knew if I kept my distance from everyone, it wouldn\u2019t really be noticed.\u00a0 As long as I didn\u2019t smile, all would be well. (Where were those covid masks when I needed them?)<\/span><\/p>\n ** ***I went to school, and my husband continued to search the house for me. He also found nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n Attempting to Solve a Strange Mystery<\/h2>\n***** ** In the days that followed, I cleaned that house like a fool, knowing the partial plate would show up, that somehow, God would provide a miracle. In addition, every day I prayed, petitioned, begged, and pleaded, that God would lead me to that partial plate.<\/span><\/p>\n ** \u00a0<\/p>\n ** Time went on, and there was no miracle, and no dental plate.<\/span><\/p>\n ** *****\u00a0<\/p>\n A week passed. I began to praise God that it was found, <\/span>\u201ccalling things that are not as though they were.<\/span><\/a>\u201d I asked others to pray for me to be able to find what I had lost (I didn\u2019t tell the details\u2013I was so self-conscious), and they prayed, too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n No word, no sign, no miracle.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I fasted for three days.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Nada.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t just my ego by that point. That dental plate kept my other teeth from loosening. It helped me to eat. And I did not have the money to replace it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A Desperate Prayer for a Strange Miracle<\/h2>\n***** ** Finally one morning, in total frustration (and I don\u2019t recommend this, but I know that God understands our emotions\u2013even the negative ones), instead of my morning prayers, I looked toward heaven and yelled, \u201cOK, Lord. I have done everything I know to do. People know I am trusting You for this answer. Now it\u2019s Your reputation on the line, not mine!\u201d Then I stomped off to get dressed.<\/span><\/p>\n ** A Strange Miracle<\/h2>\n ** The weather had turned chilly, so I went to the closet and pulled out a sweater that I had not worn in months \u2026 not a fuzzy sweater that might catch something in its threads or a piece of clothing that had been laying out waiting to be worn \u2026 and as I took the sweater off the hanger \u2026 my dental partial plate dropped on the floor at my feet.<\/span><\/p>\n ** \u00a0<\/p>\n ** This is not, in any way, an exaggeration. What do I think happened? A miracle\u2013a strange miracle.<\/span><\/p>\n ** \u00a0<\/p>\n ** My problem was not a matter of life and death. It was not something that couldn\u2019t have been worked out, in time. Maybe I just had to learn to give up relying on my own efforts and realize that there are some things that are totally out of my control and out of my ability to fix.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ** \u00a0<\/p>\n ** I went to the very edge of my faith, then God took over. He showed up and showed off a little\u2013He sent me a strange miracle. Why did He do it this way? How did the plate get into such an odd place? WHAT HAPPENED?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ** \u00a0<\/p>\n ** I don\u2019t know.<\/span><\/p>\n ** God Sends A Strange Miracle, Sometimes<\/h2>\n ** However, I do know that He loves me. I know He loves you, too. So if you\u2019re hanging on for a miracle, even if it\u2019s a strange miracle, don\u2019t give up. Hang in there like a rusty fishhook. And \u201cwhen you have done all you can to stand, stand.\u201d Trust me. God has your need and your provision under control.<\/span><\/p>\n ** When I think of the biblical accounts of miracles and how God brought them about, I guess they\u2019re all a little strange. Strange \u2026 miraculous \u2026 and wonderful \u2026 that\u2019s the way of our God!<\/p>\n ** \u00a0<\/p>\n ** God bless you, and may your miracle come, strange as it may be.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n ** \u00a0<\/p>\n ** \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n * \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" * *******OpenClipart Vectors True Story \u201cWhen you have done all to stand, stand \u2026\u201d \u00a0 To tell this story, I must let go of my ego and make a very personal confession: God gave me a testimony, a strange miracle, and I aim to proclaim it \u2026 even though it\u2019s a little embarrassing:\u00a0 A Strange Problem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5055,"featured_media":1511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[440,437,95,27,63],"class_list":["post-1499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-strange-miracle","tag-believe","tag-faith","tag-miracles","tag-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nA Strange Miracle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"God gave me a testimony, a strange miracle, and I aim to proclaim it \u2026 even though it\u2019s a little embarrassing:\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/ichasesunsets\/2023\/09\/a-strange-miracle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Strange Miracle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"God gave me a testimony, a strange miracle, and I aim to proclaim it \u2026 even though it\u2019s a little embarrassing:\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/ichasesunsets\/2023\/09\/a-strange-miracle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"I Chase Sunsets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-30T13:47:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1809\/2023\/09\/lips-156991_1280.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"732\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beverly R. 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