What Is a Miracle?

Yesterday a posted about people trying to read into the story of Jonah a miracle that simply isn't there; today I want to get into just exactly what a miracle is.

When I was younger, I was taught that a miracle is something that only God or Jesus could do. That may not be an entirely accurate definition, but I think it's probably good enough. Someone told me recently that part of what qualifies something to be a miracle is that it must be something that has never been done before. I'm not sure where they got that, but perhaps that is why Jesus never did anything the same way twice.

Dictionary.com cites the Random House Dictionary as defining miracle as: "1. an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.
2. such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God. " American Heritage dictionary as: "1. An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God: "Miracles are spontaneous, they cannot be summoned, but come of themselves" (Katherine Anne Porter). 2. One that excites admiring awe. See Synonyms at wonder. 3. A miracle play."

There are several other definitions from other sources on that website, but, the point is, none of them say anything about a miracle being something that was never done before. In that vein, though, I would like to point out something that was recently pointed out to me (and not by the person that claims miracles have to be something that never happened before): In Matthew 9:29, Jesus healed two blind men by simply touching their eyes. In Mark 8:23, Jesus healed a blind man by spitting on his eyes. In Mark 10:52, Jesus healed a blind man named Bartimaeus simply by telling him he was healed. In John 9:6, Jesus spit on the ground and made a clay from the dirt and spit, and anointed a blind man's eyes with it to restore his sight. Now, to be honest, I don't know why Jesus didn't heal each of the blind men the same way. It doesn't make sense to me: if He could heal one man by telling him to be healed, couldn't He have healed all of them the same way? I know that if I were blind, I would rather be the guy that Jesus just told to be healed. On the other hand, if I were blind, and he wanted to spit in my eyes and then tell me to go wash in some pool somewhere, I would make sure I went to the right pool. Why take a chance? Eyesight is too important. Granted, it would be easier to make excuses, or just sit and complain (that other blind guy didn't have to go through all of this to get his sight back, why do I?), but that wouldn't get my eyesight back.

I think so many times, though, we as individuals get caught up in things that shouldn't really matter. God treats each of us as individuals, and sometimes it seems as though He requires more of one individual than another (sometimes He does require more of one individual than another, but that's His prerogative). We have an individual relationship with God, and it does not serve us well to be trying to figure out why I have to go through this, but he only has to... Let's just do the best we can to do what's required of us, and try not to come up any shorter than we absolutely have to.