Years ago, a man who raised corn came home from tending his crop and sadly told his wife that it looked like the corn was going to be a complete loss this year because it was full of aphids. This was devastating news because the family depended on the harvest each year. Together they worried and then prayed that somehow the corn would be saved.
The next morning, the man burst into the house and exclaimed to his wife, “Come quick!” Expecting the worst, she braced herself as she followed him out to the corn. Instead of ruined corn stalks and a devastated field, they found beautiful red ladybugs everywhere devouring the aphids. The corn was saved!
One small field of corn may seem like it doesn’t mean much, but it meant everything to this couple. Those ladybugs were proof that you don’t have to be very big to be part of a miracle.1
Think of the miracles small and large that surround us each day. The changing seasons are a miracle. So are the sun, the air, and every detail that sustains our life on earth. Good things happen, and bad things often improve. People change for the better, and hearts can soften over time.
But what about those dark days and sleepless nights, the times when the cornfields are filled with devouring aphids and no ladybugs are in sight? Sometimes the miracle that answers our prayers is not a change in our situation but a change in us to deal more courageously with sorrow and hardships. Sometimes the miracle is a compassionate friend or caring family member who listens and helps. And sometimes the miracle we need most is hope and patience and faith in everlasting things.
As we look for the miracles around and within us, it helps to recall a miracle that occurred 2,000 years ago on a spring day outside an empty tomb, where an angel said to two grieving women, “He is not here: for he is risen” (Matthew 28:6). When our hearts turn to the Risen Lord and that greatest of all miracles, our hope is renewed in God’s power to heal what is broken, restore what is lost, and turn endings into new beginnings.
1 As told by Tawnya Kemp and Janet Greenhalgh, about Royal and Ruth Bischoff; used by permission.
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April 21, 2019
Broadcast Number 4,675
The Tabernacle Choir
Orchestra at Temple Square
Bells on Temple Square
Gabriel Trumpet Ensemble
The Greatest Miracle
Conductor
Mack Wilberg
Organist
Brian Mathias
Host
Lloyd Newell
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
Traditional hymn tune; arr. Mack Wilberg
That Easter Day with Joy Was Bright
German hymn tune; arr. Mack Wilberg
In the Garden
C. Austin Miles; arr. Ryan Murphy
This Joyful Eastertide
Dutch tune; arr. John Ferguson
He Is Risen
Joachim Neander; arr. Mack Wilberg
Worthy Is the Lamb That Was Slain, from Messiah
George Frideric Handel